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If you want to start small, yet save as much money as you can, you can power just one appliance at a time with solar energy.

So which appliances are best suited for being powered by solar or wind energy?

It depends on the size of your system and the ampere or wattage rating of your appliances.

You can look on the nameplate of many appliances and they will either tell you the amp rating or the wattage of the appliance. The goal is to find the wattage, but you can determine the wattage by finding the amp rating. Wattage is Volts multiplied by Amps. 

If your appliance doesn't have an amp or wattage rating on the nameplate, you can purchase an ammeter to measure the amp draw of the appliance. 

To test it, you will have to find a way to place the clamp of the ammeter around one wire that feeds the appliance alone, or remove the cover of the circuit box and place the clamp of the ammeter around the one wire that feeds the electricity to the appliance. 

To determine the wattage, multiply the voltage times the amp draw of the appliance. For instance, 120 volts X 3 amps would be 360 watts. Sometimes the appliance will give you the wattage on the nameplate. This can save time and effort.

So what appliances are well suited for Solar and Wind Energy systems? You want an appliance that gets used a lot, and yet doesn't use too large of a quantity of electricity so that you can start with a small system. One of the best appliances you can start with is the Refrigerator or Freezer. Here are some reasons why:

1) They use between 300 and 800 watts so an inexpensive inverter can be used.

2) Refrigerators run quite often and use about the same amount of electricity every month

3) They are something that is typically always in use, even when you are on vacation.

4) Because of the constant usage, you will notice a drop in your electric bill even though you have a small, inexpensive system. 

5) If you build your own solar/wind energy system, it will pay for itself within months and save you money for many years to come.

Here are some other appliances and the typical wattage ratings of each:

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