Are you considering using alternative energy measures in your home or business to offset the rising costs of electricity. There are many ways in which you can implement alternative energy in your everyday life such as Solar Hot water heating, Solar photo-voltaic/electrical production, geothermal HVAC systems, small scale wind turbines, and micro-hydro-electric production. There are even federal rebates that will reduce the up-front costs of these systems, reducing the time that these solutions pay themselves off. When you are considering alternative energy, you need to assess how efficient your home is using the energy that is coming into it. If your home isn’t at its maximum efficiency then the money spent on alternative energy solutions will be wasted so consider having a Home Performance audit performed on your home before installing any of the alternative energy solutions. The Home Performance audit will show you where your house is wasting energy and gives recommendations to fixing these items. Once your house has been improved with respect to its energy efficiency then you are ready for your solar, wind or geothermal project. These features will further reduce your dependance on energy produced outside of your home. If your home and alternative energy solution work well enough together then you could even eliminate your electric bill!! Some customers have even received payments from their electric company, paying them for the electricity that their home is producing. Now that’s a return on an investment!