Wind Power!Follow

Or you can spend 20k on solar and save 20 bucks a month on your hydro bill.

Though I do know a few people who have used geo-thermal but I have no clue about cost. The parents live in a lumberjack town and run an industrial fireplace out back of the house. It heats water, air etc during the winter. Saves them a lot compared to oil or propane but once again couldn't tell you the installation costs. Also viable due to the fact that they live in a lumberjack town so they don't pay for dry/green wood as fuel. Also have to factor in chainsaw and axe costs into it as well and enjoy spending 90 minutes per week cutting wood and about 30min per day stacking it properly to burn for 12-18 hours. /bunk

It may be a large investment, but consider a few things:

•How much are you paying a year on electricity? How many years would it take to pay for itself?
•Does your state offer to purchase surplus energy from you?
•A self-sufficient house is by default more valuable, as any future buyer never has to pay the electric company again.

I think we average about $180.00 per month on electricity. So a little over 2k a year. So payback is roughly 18 years or so. I am sure there are tax deferrals and deductions, etc... but have no idea how much

We live out in the country so I doubt our neighbors would complain too much. I think it would be neat to be self sufficient. But I guess I was thinking more of 8 to 10 years tops for the payback period. We would have to get a system that just connects to the grid instead of costly batteries. That would save a few K.

It's doable but for 99% of americans its still way out of reach.

You can get solar for under a couple of thousand, with some of it paid for in gov't grants. A much better solution. You can even make money by reselling to the grid, if you make more than your home needs and the power company is forced by law to repay you/give you credit on energy for it. You'd have to look up your area's laws to know the specifics.

Don't overlook what you can do to halve your electricity usage, just by your habits around the house. If you can easily halve your electricity bill, then your own green power starts to look more affordable. Don't let a company tell you what you will "need" for an average house the size of yours. Look at your actual electricity usage, and whether you really need as much electricity as you are going through now.

Have you seen any of those "green challenge" TV shows, where they give ordinary families an indoor easy to read electricity meter, and then set them targets for a day, or a week?

Most families could get their usage down to 10% of their normal usage. Living with half their former usage was a piece of cake, with a few tricks and changed habits. From my own experience, setting some things up was a minor hassle, and the other changed habits were annoying for a week or so, but past that initial period my life didn't change at all, it was just a teeny different routine.

Change over to all energy efficient lights, lighting is your biggest electrical drain. Keep garden up-lighting for special occasions, alone or in company. Flick lights off when you leave an empty room. In future look for appliances with low Watt usage.

In winter, get everyone to put a nice woolly jumper and woolly socks on instead of turning on the heater. If people are still cold, THEN turn on the heater. You won't need it up as high with everyone in warm clothes.

Pedestal and ceiling fans use 40 times less electricity than A/C. Run them in summer, they do work to cool things down. If you still need it cooler, then running them with the A/C on will make the A/C much more effective and efficient, dropping the A/C bill significantly.

Pull your fridge out from the wall a little bit, so it gets some air flow behind it to disperse it's heat into. Wash all clothes in cold water, except for a separate load of clothes that really need hot water. All these things make a surprisingly huge difference.

Bonus points if you arrange your switches so you actually turn your electrical appliances OFF, instead of having them run on stand-by. For appliances that need to be reprogrammed every time they turn on, like a lot of modern TVs, have a flash memory stick for it, either a portable one, or buy the appliance with flash memory installed.

Edited, Jun 6th 2008 3:55am by Aripyanfar

I was just checking out the rise of my electricity bill this month.

Hello A/C!

It really does because, I don't know about Texas, but here we get dinged on utilities year round. It gets cold enough to require the furnace most of the fall/winter and A/C is a necessity all spring/summer.

Cha-ching.

It really does because, I don't know about Texas, but here we get dinged on utilities year round. It gets cold enough to require the furnace most of the fall/winter and A/C is a necessity all spring/summer.

That's how it is in America, baby. It's not like Calgary, where you could just go out to your yard with a sponge and a rake and come back with a gallon of oil.

Times is hard down here, yes they are.

Pffft, like I'd live in Calgary. Puh-lease.

Wasn't it Calgary? Edmonton? Vancouver? Where else are the hockey teams where I would know the name of a Canaian city...Toronto? Montreal? Moosejaw? Ironlake?

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/04/diy_wind_genera_1.php

http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Wind/wind.htm

i saw on Discover a few months back a guy who builds his own wind generators. in short he wraps copper wire into coils and puts those coils in several spots around a disk. then mates them back to back with an other pair, attaches that to the props (the windmill part) then wires it up and poof you have power.

no clue how much it would cost to provide enough electricity for your home, that will depend on how much Kw hours you use per month.

yes gray power. items with convert boxes (those BIG plugs either at the end of the power cord or in the middle) are an other HUGE drain on electricity. by A. not using those types of devices, B. replacing them with newer more energy efficient (energystar rating) C. unplugging them when not in direct use. you can cut your monthly power bill a fair amount.

computers and monitors are an other HUGE drain on power if you leave them on 24/7 or just more then when you are using them. not only are they drawing electricity while sitting there idle, but the heat they produce during the summer will jack up your AC usage thus increasing more drain on electricity = more $$ you pay every month.

My electric bill is about $500 a month on average. It's spiked as high as $800 before.