With the global recession hitting us all quite hard, and with the price of fossil fuels sky rocketing, many people are looking for free energy home. This is where renewable energy plays an important part. Renewable energy is an energy source such as solar, wind, water, and geothermal power that continues to replenish itself. Not only are these energy sources free (the only cost involved is in the technology to set it up), but also there are no environmental pollutants created either.

The sun is by far the most important source of free energy and can be utilized by either solar thermal collectors or photovoltaic technology.

Hot water solar panels are in interesting way to start out converting your home to solar power. In this video, you will see an comparison demonstration of various hot water solar panel systems.

Side by side testing of eight solar water heating systems

A DTI funded study on solar panel performance highlighted the need for zero carbon solar thermal systems because the operational carbon clawback exceeded 20% for old styles of solar panels. To save energy, there was one zero carbon solar panel, Solartwin, whose design innovations were validated by the study. Solar energy is not negated by “parasitics” by the best solar panel designs.