How can I use renewable energy in my home?

How to choose the best option? How does it benefit me in terms of savings and sustainability? These are some of the questions you can ask yourself if you want to use renewable energy in your home.

Your home, an important factor

The truth is that there is no single answer, but it depends on some variables related to the state of your house, among which the following stand out:

• How is your house built in terms of materials and insulation?
• Who lives in it and what consumption patterns does it have?
• What energy does the house have for air conditioning and what is its potential for improvement?

For example, in poorly insulated homes with heat pumps older than 15 years, another solution can be sought, such as hot air. With this, in addition to comfort, you can save a lot on your electricity bill if you install underfloor heating / refreshing.

How does energy reach your home today?

First, ask yourself: what energy are you consuming at home? How did it get there? Where you consume it can be heat in the kitchen or heating, or it can be in the form of electricity to illuminate or generate work (as well as running washing machines, dishwashers, etc.)

• Electricity

Let's start with electricity, as it is the most common form of energy in Spanish homes. Electricity comes to us mainly through the distribution network. The distribution companies are responsible for this distribution of energy

If you consider yourself a conscious consumer, then as an end user, you can choose to contract with whomever you want and the type of energy you want. For example, you can choose energy produced only from renewable sources.

• Heat

As for the heating, we will focus on its production to ensure the comfort of the home.

The truth is that heating your home with electricity is quite inefficient, so it is ideal to heat where it is needed, such as with a "biomass stove", which is also a fuel of biological origin.

There are many solutions to generate heat in the home that are also suitable for all types of homes (flats - neighborhoods) and single-family homes

• How can we generate hot water from renewable sources?
• The most common is how can we produce hot water from renewable resources?

 The most common is through the production of solar or photovoltaic energy, which is then supported by electrical energy for a more efficient use of the different resources.

Renewable energy

These are the main sources of renewable energy on the market.

• Hot air

Aerothermy works with the exchange of temperature with air. It is used to provide comfort to a home by producing hot or cold water, which heats the house in winter and cools it in winter, which is known as underfloor heating or underfloor heating. It can also be used to store domestic hot water.

• Geothermal

The principle is similar to the previous one, but in this case the exchange is with the ground, since at 10 meters deep the temperature is constant at 10ºC.

• Solar Thermodynamics

Here there is a temperature exchange with the sun, and non-photovoltaic panels are used to accumulate solar heat and normally produce hot water with an average outlet temperature of 40ºC. Due to weather conditions, you may not be able to maintain this outlet temperature and you will need an additional power supply, especially in winter.

All of these options are available for vertical and single-family homes. However, in the first, the management of hot water for various uses must be agreed with the neighbors: the electrical contributions of the neighbors will not be the same since they cannot be distributed equitably.

Find the perfect energy mix

This type of energy often needs to be supplemented with other energy sources (usually electricity) to achieve the desired temperature, but this is always more efficient than simply using electricity from the grid.

There is no doubt that to have an efficient home it is necessary to use different types of energy, a good energy mix.

What does the energy mix that I must have in my home depend on?

Location and isolation are very important, but so is knowing where the energy comes from and what I want to do with it.

It is best to analyze it with the help of experts, energy consultants who will not only evaluate the house, but also what it will be used for and suggest the most suitable options for our home and family.

In addition, do not forget that having an efficient home depends not only on production, but also on our consumption, and this is where the habits and awareness of the occupants come into play. For people to change their habits, they need to know how they consume energy, when and where, and to be able to adjust their task schedule to the most appropriate time for energy consumption, rather than having everything done within an hour. Monitoring consumption is the best way to improve consumption.