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Solar energy has come on a long way in recent years and you can now get some affordable and effective solar systems that can supplement the energy usage in your home. The success of solar energy will depend on the location of your home, and whether you have a suitable position to set up your solar system in, but many homes can successfully run solar power and use it to provide up to 50% of all the annual home heating and water heating needs.

Photovoltaic Panels
This is a common form of solar power system for domestic properties and uses flat panels to capture the suns rays, which are filled with silicon (rather like the small cell panels on a solar powered calculator) that release electrons when exposed to sunlight creating an electrical charge. The Photovoltaic Panels then conduct this charge along metal contacts and transform it into usable electricity, which can be stored in special batteries or used straight away to run home heating systems.

There are so many ways to reuse plastic bags you should never need to throw any of them away, and even ripped or torn bags can be used for craft projects and other practical applications. Here are just a few easy ways in which you can reuse your plastic bags:
· If you are handy with knitting needles then you can cut up any worn or damaged plastic bags and then use the material to knit yourself a new, stronger plastic bag for carrying shopping in. To make the plastic yarn for your project cut the bags into spirals to get long strips of plastic, then use a spindle to turn your strips into a long length of yarn to knit with, and to attached two strips together just overlap the two ends and the spinning action will secure them together. Once you have your plastic yarn then pick out a simple shopping bag pattern and get knitting. Plastic yarn is surprisingly supple, strong and long lasting and this is an excellent way to turn damaged plastic bags back into a useful item again.
· Plastic shopping bags can be used to line your kitchen bin, and this can not only save you money on buying bin liners but it also means you will be putting your plastic bags to another use before throwing them away.
· In Store Recycling – most supermarkets now offer ‘in-store’ plastic bag recycling and this is a good way to recycling large amounts of plastic bags that you may have built up in your cupboards.