One of the most energy intensive appliances in the modern American home is the central air conditioning unit. Although it may be convenient to pump refrigerated air into every room in your home, unoccupied or not, it is definitely wasteful to say the least. Central AC units must be sized to cool your entire home, so whether their is only one person at home or 5 people at home when the AC is running, you will basically consume about the same amount of energy.

We get calls from consumers almost on a daily basis that have the misconception that they can throw a few solar panels on the roof of their home and rid themselves of their air conditioning bill. In actuality, you can power your central air conditioner with solar panels, but it would take the majority of a moderate sized solar system 30 to 40 solar panels to achieve this goal.