Ways to make energy at home

Always wanted to generate your own energy? Well, there are so many ways you can! Whether you want to be greener or just more self-reliant – here's how to make your own energy from the comfort of your house.

Taking advantage of the sun

Solar panels power your home by capturing the sun’s energy and turning the energy into electricity. In a push to be environmentally friendly, more and more homeowners are fitting solar panels.

It doesn’t have to be sunny to generate energy – solar panels will still work on cloudy days and in the winter; just not as effectively as a bright summer’s day.

Discover more about fitting solar PV for your home.

Store it up for a rainy day

Wish you could store all that solar energy and use it anytime you want? Well now you can with us! Powervault 3 is a battery storage solution, which means you can store the energy you generate from solar panels during the day and use it whenever you want. Find out more about getting the Powervault 3 with EDF Energy – from installation to how to make the most of it.

Find out more about storing your own solar energy.

Mini wind turbines that will blow you away

We’ve all heard of wind turbines – and the amazing work happening to capture more wind energy – but have you heard of mini wind turbines for your home?

Small wind turbines generate energy for where they are built; and not the national grid. You’ll need plenty of open space, and the wind data around your home will need to be assessed. After that, you could start creating your very own wind energy.

You can get small turbines mounted on your roof or next to your home. You'll need to get planning permission and have your home evaluated to see if you can generate enough wind power. If you're keen – find out more here. 

Read more about our wind farms and projects.

Generating from the ground up

Ground source heat pumps use pipes deep in the earth (often your garden) to get heat from the ground. This can then be used to heat anything in your home, from radiators to hot water you could extract your heat from the earth.

Heating up your water with sunshine

Your next bath could be heated from the sun. (If you have a solar water unit!).

Solar thermal units are mounted on your roof, on poles, or on the ground. A water tank stores the water and then it’s pumped through the panels.

This is a method that will grow in popularity – you just need your own solar panels and enough space to store a large unit. If you think it's for you read more here. 

Harnessing the power of water

Most people won’t have a river or stream to power their home; however, there will be the lucky few, and if this is you – you could divert some water to flow through a turbine and power your home!

The flow and distance will determine how much power you can actually generate. But, unlike solar and wind; hydropower is stable and reliable.

The pros? It's stable can generate energy year round no matter the weather. The cons? Most people will not have a water source – and it can be trickier to implement than say solar panels. 

Interested in finding out more about hydropower? Discover how it’s generated and our approach.