The words “solar power” often bring to mind solar panels and photovoltaic (PV) solar systems, but you can harness the sun’s energy in a number of smaller ways. The practical and affordable solar projects listed here are ones anyone can build or take advantage of. They explain how to use solar energy to purify drinking water, enjoy a portable shower, and cool your house.

Boosting the efficiency of your swimming pool is an important first step in reducing your carbon footprint and moving toward a more sustainable lifestyle. Here's how to make your swimming pool energy efficient so that when you add solar, you get the most bang for your buck: Reduce bends in the piping: Sharp bends in the PVC piping slow down the flow and require more power to do the same job.

You can heat your pool using solar power. Your pool system already includes the pump, controller, and filter, along with PVC pipes that route the water flow. Simply break into the PVC line after the filter and run a couple of flex hoses (or PVC, if you prefer) to the solar collector panel, which you can lay out on the ground or set against a hill to achieve some tilt toward the sun.

Radiant floor heat systems use solar power to heat water, which is then pumped through your home's floor. You can use solar-heated water to heat your home off-grid. Radiant heat, without solar, costs much less than forced-air heating for efficiency reasons. Installing a radiant heat floor system is almost surely not a do-it-yourself project, but it merits elaboration because it's such a complete and effective way to use solar energy water heating.

A green lifestyle includes reusing resources. You can turn old and broken plates into creative works of art as tabletop mosaics. Choose a non-toxic, eco-friendly adhesive and grout (find them at www.greenbuildingsupply.com if your local hardware store can’t help) and do a green deed for yourself and the planet.

In your solar power system, you need inverters to take the low-voltage, high-current signals from the PV panels and convert them into 120VAC or 240VAC, which is directly compatible with grid power. Inverters cost around $0.70 per watt, or around $2,600 for a typical application. From a reliability standpoint, they are generally the weak link in any PV system, so quality is a must.

Using solar power in your home is inexpensive after the initial start-up costs. It also benefits the environment by reducing your carbon footprint. Here are some more reasons to consider investing in solar power for your home: Erase your carbon footprint: Your carbon dioxide footprint is a measure of how much carbon dioxide you're releasing into the environment based on your energy-consuming habits.

The cheapest and most effective solar-heating system for your swimming pool is a solar cover. You can get one for around $0.30 a square foot, so covering an average size pool costs about $130. Using a plastic cover alone can extend your swim season a couple of months on each end of the summer. In the Midwest, for example, if you use a cover, you can swim from mid-April until mid-October.