Newbee question

Beverly,

I agree with James that the best way to start is with efficient lighting and appliances, insulation, and so on.  But since your question is how to best spend your money on “solar”, I would first look into solar water heating, and then solar electricity. 

With solar electricity, you have two basic options, grid-tied or off-grid.  $1000 is not nearly enough to get a (practical) grid-tied system up and running, so I’ll limit this reply to off-grid.

If you spend your money wisely, and do the labor yourself, your $1000 off-grid system might be big enough to provide some lighting, charge a cell phone, power a radio, and not much more.  Still, it’s a good start.  You’ll really appreciate the value of your small system in the event of a grid-power failure.  As you enlarge you’ll be able to watch TV, do a little cooking, and use other household appliances.  It will take quite a bit more to provide air-conditioning and heating.  I use a bio-fueled stove and only use electricity to power the motors. 

May I suggest that before you buy anything, think about what you want to end up with in the long run.  Use on-line resources to calculate how big your system needs to be, mainly in terms of watts of PV and amp-hours of battery capacity, to meet your ultimate goals. 

There’s nothing wrong with starting small and adding to your system over time, but consider your battery strategy carefully, as it is not a good idea to add new batteries to an existing array. 

If you’ll tell me what your goals are, I’ll be happy to provide additional information. 

John

Right!  Not all bulbs are of the same quality.  I have no LED bulbs, but almost everything in my home is CFL.  I've had good luck with Sylvania.  You can extend the life of CFL's by making sure that heat doesn't build up inside the light fixture.  I've actually inverted some of my light fixtures so that the base of the bulb (where the electronics are), is below the bulb itself. 

John

As far as I know then it is better for us that we should work on power systems of homes like, using CFLs instead of power bulbs is lot more beneficial. Also, you can install power saving equipments that are better for unnecessary loss of power. Also, you can install solar PV roofing that can also worth.

Thanks

http://www.energyboom.com/