About Residential Services

There are several choices and many decisions to be made to create and control electricity at your residence. The first thing you should understand is that you, to whatever degree, will become your own power station.

So the first decision to make is, is there someone at your residence who understands and can operate the electrical equipment? If there isn’t, not a problem, we just need to design a system that is as automatic as possible.

Your choices of equipment might include a generator for back up power when the utility power fails, i.e. during a storm, a solar system, or a wind generator system. Let’s consider these individually.

Residential Power System Products

Residential Generators

There are three types of generators that could be applied to a residence. They all require some addition/modification of your electrical panel to operate.

A portable generator is the least expensive and can be wheeled to other locations to use in non-emergency situations i.e., to a barn, to run power tools, etc. They use regular gas and typically have a 3-10 gallon gas tank. In an extended outage someone has to be home to refill the tank.

The second type, and the one we recommend, is a home standby unit. It sits outside your home like an air conditioning unit and is connected directly to your electrical panel. These units run on natural gas or propane. During an outage, the generator starts itself and powers your home automatically.

The third type is a PTO generator. They require a tractor to operate and are most often seen in rural areas. Please view Agricultural Services for more information.

Residential Solar Systems

Solar panels are available in three types, hot air, hot water, photovoltaic (produce electricity) and can be used in urban and rural settings. They are all considered a renewable resource.

Hot air systems are the simplest and therefore the least expensive option. They collect hot air that is then circulated throughout your home via fans and ductwork thus lowering your heating costs. However, there is no real benefit in the summer months.

Hot water systems heat water flowing through small tubes in the solar panels. The heated water can be used for space heating, radiant floor heating and/or domestic hot water use year round. Systems are sized based on square-footage for heating or number of persons in the household for hot water.

Photovoltaic (PV) systems produce electricity and work continuously when the sun is shining. The power they create can be used to off-set your electric bill in a utility connected design or to charge batteries in an off grid design. All solar panels can be roof mounted or ground mounted.

Residential Wind Power

Wind generators produce electricity continuously as the wind blows. Due to setback requirements by code departments in urban areas, wind generators are installed mostly in rural areas on acreages and farms. The power it creates can be used to offset your electric bill in a utility connected design, or charge batteries in an off-grid design. A utility-tie system does not allow you any emergency backup power. It is however less expensive and requires less maintenance than a battery installation.

Net Metering

Some states have net metering laws, which mean you can use the utility grid as a storage device. At this time Nebraska does not have a law like this in place, however individual agreements may be worked out with your local power provider.

Nebraska utilities offering net metering:

Lincoln Electric System