Solar energy systems reduce the demand for fossil fuels, making them a much cleaner and green choice for the environment when it comes creating heat and electricity in your home or business.

I attended a solar energy workshop the other night, hoping to learn more about alternative heating/electricity and to see if “going solar” might be an option for myself and my family in the future. Here’s what I learned:

The solar energy panels are installed on your roof or the ground, depending on the direction your house faces and which you prefer aesthetically. The panels for solar hot water contain a substance that gets heated by the sun, then gets channeled into a coiled ring inside a water tank in your utility room where it heats the water to be used inside your home. For electricity, panels harness the sun’s energy in the form of elections that then pass through a converter, changing it from direct current (DC) to alternating current (AC) that you can use in your home.

But will installing solar heating and electricity take you off the grid? Not necessarily– at least not completely. Because the technology is still very much evolving, these systems do not yet work at peak efficiency. The aim is that they should account for up to 80% of your heating/electricity needs. The other 20% of the time you’re still pulling energy from the grid, unless you don’t mind cold showers!

If you’d rather sell the energy your panels create rather than using it in your own home, the energy can be funneled straight into the grid for others to use in their homes, and your energy company will actually write you a check each month.

So what’s the cost for one of these systems? Of course there are many factors to take into account, including the size of your home, the type of solar panels you choose and any incentives available from your state government and current energy company. Here in the Asheville area the average cost (after government and energy company rebates) is $2,500 for hot water and $7,500 for electricity. Based on the amount of money you save from not having to pull from the grid as often, these systems are supposed to pay themselves off within about 5-7 years.

If you feel it’s time to invest in renewable energy sources for your home or business, visit www.dsireusa.org for more information on tax credits from the federal government. Also, be sure to check for credits offered by your state of residence and current energy company.