You may not be able to completely put your home on solar or alternative energy, but you can at least try and do a partial power replacement.
Solar panels are very expensive, but in the long run, the investment may be worth it in cutting costs, saving the environment, and even possibly helping delay the projected fuel shortage by 2050. Also, this is one thing that you can do for energy sustainability, in the capacity that you can as a private individual.
With wind energy, you would have to be an extremely wealthy individual in order to build a wind farm. Hydroelectric energy may require an investment of similar proportions. But with solar power, you can rely on panels you can buy and install yourself.
This On Grid Calculator will help you figure out how many solar panels you need in order to replace a certain number of kilowatt-hours that your home may use in a month. You can choose to test the whole month's electricity use, or you can choose just a certain number of kilowatt-hours to replace. With this, you can figure out how much you will be investing in solar panels in order to save the kilowatt-hours of electricity you specified.
Over time, your investment will be worth it. But your investment's true value is not in the money you will be saving from paying electricity in a month. Your investment's true value will lie in how you save the environment, and help conserve petrol. It may not be much, but something is always better than nothing.
