As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Stimulus checks should be in your bank account soon if they haven’t already arrived.  What are you going to do with your check?

It’s so tempting to run out and buy clothes, pay bills, and put a down payment on something, but let me ask you this question…

What will those things give back to you? In other words, what’s your return on investment?

Can I give you another idea of what to do with your money? An idea that will help you keep future money in your pocket.

This isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme, it’s really just simple math. Spend money, to help you keep money every single month from now until you sell your home.

Want to know how it’s done?  Go gather up your electricity bill and meet me at the computer.  I’ll wait for you… GO!…

If you are paying the electric company, you are paying too much. Period. The money that you send out each and every month should be staying in your pocket where it belongs.

A few years ago my husband and I received an unexpected bonus.  Rather than spend the money on bills, we decided to “invest” in things that would help us save money on future bills.

We took a hard look at our bills and realized that the electricity bill was way too high. So we purchased 9 solar panels, 1 wind turbine, and we changed all the lightbulbs over to LED bulbs.

The electric clothes dryer also had to go. We ordered a new gas clothes dryer in its place.

The next bill to take a hard look at was the gas bill.

We purchased a new gas hot water heater that heated our water on demand. Because it’s expensive to heat and reheat the water.

Solar and Wind energy is not everyone’s cup of tea, they are kind of ugly.  I decided that I can live with ugly if it means that I can eat out or do fun things with the money that it saves us.

Here’s what you are looking for when it comes to solar panels:

• You are looking for efficiency in a solar panel system with 99.7 percent efficiency.
• 99.7 is the highest potential of getting energy possible from solar panels. The higher the number the more efficient the system is.
• Everything is measured and paid in watts therefore the higher the watts system, the more energy produced.
• A typical system should be just below the average home usage, which is about 1450 watts.
• Off-grid uses batteries to store energy and an inverter to change low  DC voltage to a higher AC voltage that is used in homes.
• We prefer using a grid-tie inverter system. This collects the energy from the sun at  11 to 20VDC and transfers it into a grid-tie Inverter to 115VAC directly into any outlet under 20amps.
• The results are should be instant.
• In other words, it’s like filling your car with gas and driving all the while the tank is being filled as you drive. If you use less energy the tank simply over-fills.
• If you use more energy than you can produce then you still buy the balance from your energy provider.
• So we look for systems that are clean, small footprint, and efficient at a good price.  The general cost of a system is 1 dollar a watt.

To determine what size system you need is simple. Look at your electric bill and note how many watts you used for the month. This will determine the size of the solar system you would need.

Again, here are some products that you might want to consider if you are trying to cut your electrical and gas bills down.