Microgeneration can be a great way to save yourself money on your gas and electricity bills. However, many people are still unaware of what exactly microgeneration is and how they could benefit from it.
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Microgeneration simply means that you produce some or all of the energy that you use in your household through renewable sources in your own home.
There are a number of ways that you can generate your own power and not all of them are particularly expensive. You can even earn some money through this by selling your excess power back to the mains grid.
There are a few different reasons that people choose to generate their own energy. One of these reasons is that they want to be more environmentally friendly by using energy from renewable resources. Producing your energy at home is a great way to do this but it is not the only one. There are many energy suppliers out there with tariffs that offer energy that is produced exclusively through renewable sources. To have a look at what green energy plans are available to you, run a green energy comparison through our website.
Another reason that people choose to generate their own energy is that it can often be a lot cheaper than purchasing your energy from an outside energy supplier. Whilst most of the methods used for generating energy require a significant financial outlay to begin with, they can save you a lot of money in the long run and therefore pay for themselves.
If you are creating an excess amount of energy then you can sell this power back to the mains grid for a profit. To do this you will need to sign up to a Feed-In tariff. These Feed-In tariffs allow you to paid for every unit of energy that you produce yourself and can be a great way to save yourself money on your gas and electricity bills.
The Feed-In tariff scheme was launched in 2008 and has the backing of the Department of Energy and Climate Change.
There are many forms of technology that will allow you to produce your own energy. You should think carefully about which type of technology is best suited to your own specific environment.
Solar Panels
Solar panels, as their name suggests, run off of energy that they them receive from sunlight. However this does not mean that you have to rely on it being sunny in order to gain energy, they will be able to produce energy on a cloudy day too. If you are considering installing solar panels then you should make sure that you place them on a part of your house that gets a decent amount of exposure otherwise you will not be able to generate much energy.
Hydro Turbines
Hydro Turbines are an excellent choice if your property has access to a source of flowing water. They produce electricity as the water turns the motor inside. One of the best things about this form of generator is that they will continually produce energy, all day and all night.
Wind Turbines
Wind Turbines work much like Hydro Turbines expect they draw their power from the wind as opposed to water. Normally these structures stand at about 2 to 8m tall. Needless to say, the energy that they produce will depend on the amount of wind that they receive.