If your home electric bill shows a lot more than 100 kWh each month, adding solar electric equipment to your home is NOT the way to start cutting that electric bill. Since serious conservation measures must always be done before considering solar electric power in your home, this is the place to start whether you will use solar or keep the utility. The biggest energy users are electric heat, electric hot water, electric stove or oven, and electric heated clothes drier. Along with air conditioning, these appliances use outrageous amounts of power, thousands of watts every instant they run. You can switch to propane or natural gas for water heating, home heat, cooking, and clothes drying.
Some areas can use evaporative cooling instead of air conditioning.
This, with more efficient refrigerators and freezers, will instantly cut off more than three quarters of what you usually pay for electricity. Some appliances consume power 24 hours a day, even when turned off. Televisions, stereos, office equipment, garage door openers and many other items have been carelessly designed, letting the owner pay the bill. These have to be really switched off cold when not being used, by a wall switch or outlet strip, or by pulling the plug. Independently powered homes are always designed with those conservation measures in place so that a practical solar electric power system can run the house.