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Tag: Solar Savings

Power outages have many causes, but one sure cure.

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Readers of the  New Castle, PA, News got their papers late today because a power outage shut down the printing plant. While Penn Power eventually restored electricity, the cause of the outage is still unreported.

But it could have been almost anything.

On October 28, in Moundsville, WV, the cause was copper thieves, who cut through a power substation’s fence, broke the lock on the control house door, started helping themselves to 2 gauge copper wire, and tripped a circuit breaker in the process. About 3,000 homes and businesses were without electricity for almost two hours, and schools were closed.

The day before, just as schools were letting out in Farmington, VA, a failed lightning arrestor knocked out power in about 2,950 homes and businesses – and all the city’s traffic lights. It took four crews nearly an hour to restore it.

And Lynchburg’s downtown business district, as noted before, has been plagued with a whole string of outages caused by squirrels eating the insulation.

But while power outages can have many causes, there’s one best way to avoid them – and that’s with a Milestone Solar array with battery backup. Lynchburg, the home of those hungry squirrels, for example, enjoys 219 days with sunshine a year – and on each of those days, solar power can be charging a sealed, state-of-the-art battery bank.

When the power goes out, that battery bank kicks in – keeping your lights on, your food fresh and your appliances running – day and night, until the electricity comes on again, with no flammable fuels and no toxic emissions. And when it does, your Milestone Solar system cuts your electric bills by as much as 50%, earns you a tidy tax credit, and, according to Newsday, increases your home’s value by 3 to 4%.

 

 

 

Popular Mechanics warns about generator risks

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Today, PopularMechanics.com posted, “How Not to Die: 20 Survival Tips You Must Know.”

Must-know survival tip #17 is of particular interest to anyone worried about power outages:

Use Generators Safely.

After Hurricane Sandy, many homeowners used portable generators to replace lost power, leaving the machines running overnight and allowing odorless carbon monoxide to waft inside. The gas induces dizziness, headaches, and nausea in people who are awake, but “when people go to sleep with a generator running, there’s no chance for them to realize that something’s wrong,” says Brett Brenner, president of the Electrical Safety Foundation International.

STAT: Carbon monoxide from consumer products, including portable generators, kills nearly 200 a year. Of the Sandy-related deaths, 12 were due to carbon monoxide poisoning.

 

A  Milestone Solar system with battery backup gives you power without the risk. Its high-tech, sealed battery backup bank kicks in as soon as the electricity goes out. It keeps supplying your home or business with electricity without deadly carbon monoxide – and with no exhaust emissions of any kind. You never have to refuel it. It keeps your power on for days, because it starts recharging whenever the sun rises. And when the power’s back it, it cuts your electric bills by as much as 50%. So call us toll-free, or email, to learn more.

 

 

 

8 ways to survive a power outage with kids

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Blackouts aren’t fun to begin with, and for tech-loving kids they can be torture, East Texas television station KLTV advises. So they put together these ideas for “turning this surprise into a period of family bonding and fun.”

  1. Glow-stick games – Not only do glow sticks add light, but kids can bend them into bracelets and play glow-in-the-dark tag.
  2. Go camping at home – Now’s a good time to build that fort in the living room with couch cushions. Or you could pitch an actual tent. No campfires on the living-room floor, though.
  3. Ice-cream social – It’s going to melt anyhow, so why not enjoy it while it’s still relatively solid? Invite friends and neighbors to bring their melting ice cream too, and make a party of it.
  4. Shadow puppet show – You’ve got hands and fingers, and you’ve got plenty of darkness. All you need is a flashlight.
  5. Play Mad Libs – You can read from them and fill in the blanks by flashlight.
  6. Make greeting  cards – For birthdays, for holidays, for the local nursing home. You just need paper, crayons, kids’ imagination and creativity, and, if the power goes out after daylight hours, flashlights.
  7. Backyard barbecue and Olympics – Might as well fire up the outdoor gas grill and barbecue that meat that would otherwise spoil in your now-warm freezer. While the meat’s grilling, set up relay or three-legged races for the kids, with home-made medals for the winners.
  8. Wash the dog – You have to do it sometime, you can do it outdoors, and, says KLTV, it’s always good for a laugh (except for the dog).

Of course, the best way to survive a power outage is to avoid it in the first place, and that’s precisely what you can do with a Milestone Solar system with battery backup.

A sealed, high-tech battery bank stores up solar-generated electricity, kicks in the instant the power goes out, and recharges with a dependable power source that rises in the East every morning. When the electricity’s working again, the rest of your Milestone Solar system cuts your bills in  half, earns you thousands of dollars in tax credits and incentives, and increases your home’s value.So why not phone or email for a Free Solar Evaluation?

 

Solar systems add $9,000 in home equity, Newsday reports

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Adding a residential solar electric system doesn’t just save on electricity, Long Island Newsday reported October 9. According to a Wells Fargo Bank/Journal of Appraisers study, home equity increases by 20 times the electricity savings.

“This increases the value of a home by 3-4 percent,” Newsday notes. “That would mean an average 5-kw solar system could add up to $9,000 in equity to the home it was installed on.”

Looking at the overall picture, the  increased home equity and the federal tax credits could pay for two-thirds of a typical home solar system alone.

And those savings don’t include state incentives, grants and tax credits. Nor do they include hundreds of dollars a year that utilities pay for Solar Renewable Energy Credits (SRECs, which vary from state to state)  – nor the electric-bill savings themselves, which Milestone Solar customers tell us run about 50 percent each month.

So why not contact Milestone Solar for a free solar evaluation? You’ve got nothing to lose – and thousands of dollars in home equity and savings to gain.