Solar Power  and Green Solutions

Pacific Northwest Electric offers a wide variety of energy solutions ranging from solar power to whole house fans to dimming systems. Here are some things you can do to reduce your electric bill.

Whole House Fans, Gable fans, and Ceiling Fans

Ceiling fans can keep your house a few degrees cooler in the summer. Whole house fans are an inexpensive alternative that will reduce your electric bill during the hot summer months. Gable fans take all of the hot air out of the attic area to give the hot air in your house somewhere to go. These can also keep your house cool in the summer.

Fluorescent Lighting

Some of the lesser known energy savers include changing out light bulbs from incandescent to fluorescent. Fluorescent light uses only 1/3 of the power of an incandescent light while giving off just as much, if not more light. Todayís new fluorescent fixtures are about 25% more efficient than their predecessors. We can easily convert old fixtures to new energy efficient T-5 and T-8 ballast.

LED Lighting

There are recent technological improvements in the lighting industry that also include LED lighting. Fluorescent or incandescent recessed lighting can be changed to LED recessed lighting. This change will result in a massive energy usage reduction. They use about 1/2 of the power of fluorescent light, and about 1/6 of the power of incandescent light. Recently, the price of LED lighting has dropped dramatically, thus making it much more affordable.

Whole House Dimming Systems

Dimmers can increase the life of your bulbs as well as lower your electric bill. Dimmers allow you to use only as much light as you need, and allow for mood lighting and other dramatic settings only attainable with the right amount of light. Lutron and Leviton dimming systems are available for installation immediately.

Occupancy Sensor and Motion Sensor Switches Occupancy sensors save a tremendous amount of energy by turning off unused lighting. It is perfect for areas with frequent traffic, such as bathrooms, office spaces, storage, etc.

Solar Power

Solar power is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. With the use of solar power, you can eliminate some of the electric bill you dread to pay on a monthly basis. With Government incentives and tax credits, rebates are available. Currently, the rebates for Solar are a maximum of $20,000 for residential and $230,000 for commercial, from the Energy Trust of Oregon, plus a maximum of $6,000 for residential and for commercial receive up to 35% additional tax credit from the Oregon Department of Energy.

How Solar Works

Photons from the sun are attracted to and absorbed by solar panels, the solar cells convert sunlight into DC electricity. The panel is then wired to an inverter which changes DC electricity to AC electricity to supply your household needs. Any excess of energy that is not used is sent back into the grid or utility company and bought back to be banked. This essentially means that you could get written a check for the excess power that your home created. The sun is the most abundant source of energy available on earth. The sun generates an amount of energy so vast and clean, why we have not tapped into this source on a large scale earlier is inconceivable. It is completely clean, found in huge abundance in our own backyards, and FREE.