His energy bill is $0.00 (page 2)

greendawn

Not worth it at that price, new technology is always expensive it is better to wait until it gets older and cheaper as it always does. But someone with many millions won't care much about the cost.

Brother Apostate/Docter Evil..I would love to get off the grid,but not for 1/2 a million dolars..LOL!!..I`m sure once you have achieved world domination every one will have to buy hydro from you..LOL!!...OUTLAW

BrentR

Ten years ago some friends of mine built thier house to be off the grid because the power lines did not go to thier property. They use solar, wind and a gas generator along with passive solar water heating. Now the power lines go past thier place and they are sick of being off grid and are going to reconnect and sell the surplus power back.

They lost money and had to completely readjust thier lifestyle. Thier opinion is it is not worth it, at least in western Washington. Even if your local climate is mostly sunny year round you will never recoup the equipment cost in savings. Most of the people that do it just want to look progressive. Solar panels are only 14% efficient and wind turbines need an average of 8 MPH constant wind to put out even a small amount of power.

I also know of several gated housing associations that would not alow that equipment on your house.

Scully

I keep teasing Mr Scully about installing solar panels on our roof and putting an electricity generating windmill on top of the house too. Especially when he's griping about how expensive electricity and natural gas is getting.

Then I ask him where else is he going to buy a slave to do all that work for him for the average $5/day or so that we pay in home energy costs?

ballistic

Well, what with global warming, my heating bills have come right down this Winter. Now if only I could install solar powered lights in my house!

kwintestal

They have incentives around here for people going green. The power company will even buy electricity from people who can generate an excess. Mind you, power generation isn't a huge issue here as I live very close to one of the largest natural power generators in the world.

Kwin

Brother Apostate

Everybody who commented made some good points:

At this stage of the game, even if you factor in selling surplus power back to the utilities, it is still cost prohibitive.

I'm not a realtor or appraiser (I did take the classes, just never bothered to get licensed), but from what I learned, this sort of investment in getting off the grid would, if anthing, be very hard to appraise, so I doubt it would add substantially to the sale price of the property. Probably the best case for adding value here would be to figure utility costs saved over the life (say, 20yrs) of the home, minus the cost of maintenance and repairs over the same time period, so probably not much value.

I'd say the answer to Sad emo's question, at least partly, is due to the wild extremes of temperature fluctuations here in the US- so air conditioning as well as heating costs are much more than in the much less extreme UK.

I know from experience that at least in this neck of the woods, what sells folks on alternative energy schemes is a return on investment (ROI) of 3-6 years. That's what is typical of geothermal cooling and heating, which is becoming popular around here.

So, if this example mentioned in NJ is indeed a prototype, it would have to come down to around $35,000 to $70,000 to be marketable.

I assume PEC's comment was tongue in cheek, as that turns out to be the equivalent of 36.5 fifty gallon drums of "free" frier oil a month. Imagine having to go get that stuff, haul it over to the generator, and feed the generator constantly, not to mention finding that much fryer oil, and the maintenance! Good one, PEC!

Good suggestions on saving energy from Jim_TX and anewme, as well!

Efficiency is still an issue, as Brent R pointed out, as well as affordabilty.

And, of course, as OUTLAW pointed out, when I achieve world domination, it will all be a moot point anyway, as you'll all owe me!!!! <INSERT EVIL LAUGHTER HERE>

Good points, keep 'em comin!!

Cheers,

BA

PS- here's to hoping this stuff becomes more efficient, more affordable, and reliable in the near future!

TopHat

I am glad you brought the subject of solar energy up BA....Just today I was looking to invest in a stock that sells solar panels which are invisible so to speak. More and more home builders are incorporating invisible solar panels into the new homes. http://news.com.com/Home+builders+switch+on+the+invisible+solar+panels/2100-11392_3-6070992.html

Brother Apostate

TopHat,

That is interesting. Given the incentives offered by builders and tax breaks, as the article points out, payback could be as little as 10 years, or less if energy prices rise.

Not bad looking, either:

PowerLight stock) as well as the product itself! BA

BrentR

My electrical power is solar in the form of hydroelectric and Dams do not give off any pollutants.

BTW, biodiesel is not quite as simple as pouring deep fat oil in the tank. It has to processed to raise the octane and remove the glycerin, waxes and food particulates.

His energy bill is $0.00

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