This weekend my husband & I visited three homes on the Ohio Solar Tour 2009.  It’s an annual state-wide event where homeowners give tours of the solar & other alternative energy systems used in their homes.  I’ve read so much about these technologies over the years, but it was very educational to visit real homes in my community.    There’s also a National Solar Tour, which lists by state events throughout the year.

a home on the Ohio Solar Tour

As far as alternative energy for our home, the most cost-effective option we’re researching is using solar energy for water heating.  The basic idea is the sun heats antifreeze, which is pumped into a heater-exchanger where it heats your water.  One home we visited on the tour used this technology, and their water gets so hot, they add cold water to it to cool it (and we live in mild, cloudy Ohio!)

Besides that, we just need to get a grasp on our home’s energy inefficiency.  It needs re-insulated for sure…it’s drafty & cold all winter unless we spend a fortune on heat.  We’re thinking of getting a home energy evaluation to look for where our home is leaking energy otherwise…places like around doors or windows, where the foundation meets the rest of the house structure, and perhaps we’ll learn why one room in the house always has a freezing-cold floor…