Posted on 05/07/2012 6:11:09 AM PDT by Mikey_1962
One thing I don’t have is sky high electric bills.
I attacked our energy consumption as a project. Our lifestyle is unchanged. Instead of paying $150, $250 and more a month for electricity like my neighbors, my bill runs $35 to $55 per month.
I did not want to give up my hot tub. That took some work but it is now completely solar powered, including the circulating pump.
My amortization goal was one year to payback on investment. I met that goal. I did not spend tens of thousands of dollars to get this all done.
Solar? Like when the Neanderthal was cold and enjoyed the radiant energy of the sun to keep warm? How "progressive". Wind? Like only a measly 200 years ago when the world's measure of might depended on the count of tall masted ships and nimble "clipper ships"? How "progressive". Obviously, Obamugabe wants us to start living in caves and commuting to work by canoe. How "progressive".
ABO
That’s impressive - you should write a book.
Please explain how you did that because I would like to emulate your success, and I am sure that many others would as well. With domestic paybacks running in the multi decade region, you might have achieved a miracle.
Details, please.
Remember the brown outs in California? Yet we are doing NOTHING about Obama’s WAR ON COAL? (WAR ON ENERGY might be better). Oh I forgot, “Green Energy” must have solved that problem.
We can't mine, we can't drill, we can't Frack, we can't permit nuclear.
We MUST, build windmills, put up acres of solar panels, grow algae, take Spinach and Corn out of the mouths of starving people, and spend BILLIONS (if not Trillions) subsidizing these loser industries.
*********************WAKE UP AMERICA*********************
Start with an inventory of everything that draws electricity. One by one replace or reduce the consumption of each. For example, do you really need your fridge set on the coldest setting? It is a bunch of small steps.
Not everything I did is going to work everywhere. For example, the evaporative cooler. Those don't work at all in humid climates. However, in dry climates the energy gobbling A/C is completely replaced with an evaporative (swamp) cooler. A new evaporative cooler costs $550. But you can get them used for $100 and completely rebuild it for $50.The evaporative cooler pays for itself in 2 to 3 months.
For the hot tub, I went with a solar collector I made myself. Ready bought cost $1,200 plus. At first the circulating pump was plugged into regular power but now I've replaced it with a small solar panel so the hot tub is completely off the grid.
Pop in night lights in main walking areas in your house. You don't need to flip on lights every time you walk into a room. Also, put the lights that draw the most electricity where you need them and stop flooding the whole room with light if all you need is concentrated light in one area.
The biggest savings though came when I taped into my neighbor's power without them knowing (just kidding).
One year payback? That’s hard to believe. Every energy project I’ve seen has 10 or 15 year payback (or much worse). You must have had an energy-hog of a home and were able to pluck some low-hanging energy fruit.
Nope. Standard ordinary house. Single family ranch detached. If there was low hanging fruit it was the A/C. Where I live 110 degrees is common. I don't run the A/C and my house is cool. So is my back patio for that matter. I leave the patio door open so the cool air from the house makes the outdoor patio a comfortable temp.
No way would I go with those "energy projects" with 10 or 15 year payback. Those numbers don't work.
If you can't cut your electric bill you are not trying. If you think you have to buy into one of those expensive energy projects to get it done you are not being smart financially.
One would hope that the energy companies that are currently being forced to shut down their coal plants are wise enough to simply “put them on ice” for the time being, with the intent that they could be restarted on short notice.
One of the first agendas that conservatives and Congress must “push” Romney towards after the inauguration will be to IMMEDIATELY REVERSE any and all of the executive orders and “environmental regulations” of the previous four years, and get energy production moving again (i.e., development of resources and energy generation from those resources).
This will be one of the first “tests” he must face, insofar as whether he intends to govern with the interests of the nation in mind — or just be more “business as usual”, which, in this case, means leave all the nonsense of the previous administration in place....
“He *did* warn us.He said in ‘08 that he intended to bankrupt the coal industry.Funny that he’d say that given that we have something like a 300 year supply.Why,one would think that he wants this country to revert to the 1600’s or something.”
Fast-forward to the year 2052.
It’s evening. A father and son are walking to their destination in the chilly twilight.
In the distance, the son views the hulking remains of a huge, abandoned building.
“What was that, Daddy?”, he asks.
“In my day, son, it was something called a power plant. It made electricity.”
“What was electricity?”, the son replies...
Chesapeake Energy (gas) gave the Sierra Club $25 million dollars to lobby against coal fired power plants.
That was before fracking became an issue.
>>The biggest savings though came when I taped into my neighbor’s power without them knowing (just kidding). <<
You owe me a new keyboard.....
“Not everything I did is going to work everywhere. For example, the evaporative cooler. Those don’t work at all in humid climates. However, in dry climates the energy gobbling A/C is completely replaced with an evaporative (swamp) cooler. A new evaporative cooler costs $550. But you can get them used for $100 and completely rebuild it for $50.The evaporative cooler pays for itself in 2 to 3 months. “
Right there is about 3/4 of your electric savings.
Steven Harris at solar1234.com has some easy and effective methods of reducing your heating and cooling expenses.
He has a book called “How to really cool your house” which talks about evaporative cooling for your roof and attic space, since a house heats from the roof down.
I just put in the radiant barrier sheathing with a new roof,
and it’s supposed to block 97% of the radiant heat transfer.
I, on the other hand, want to plunder the planet for all her resources (sarc). I want to run my air conditioners (plural) to maintain 65 degrees (I leave them on for my dogs), run my heater with my windows open, go for a drive, just because I feel like it. Have my TV come on instantly, (actually it is already on 18 hours a day), leave the TV or radio on, FOR MY DOGS, when no one else is home, Not to mention two computers (”sleep mode” NEVER), run my huge freezer, rerun my dryer just to fluff the clothes, Wash em twice if they sit too long, leave my outside lights on (just in case) (I do use CFL’s though and motion sensors), run the fan in my livingroom 24/7, leave the florescent under cabinet lights on 24/7 for those unexpected nightly trips, run my water bed heater 24/7, take as long and hot of a shower as often as I want to (cave people are smelly), .......etc.
I want to produce and use as much energy as I want to. We HAVE the coal, oil, natural gas, and nuclear (or nucular) resources for hundreds if not THOUSANDS of years. DOMESTIC energy production produces THOUSANDS (maybe millions) of high paying jobs, including all the secondary jobs it produces, trucking, road construction, retail, etc. NOT TO MENTION, all the money that STAYS HERE in the U.S.A. instead of financing Muslim terrorists trying to kill us.
THIS is the attitude to have, NOT to try the liberal way out, (conservation). Conservation WON'T WORK, and is TOTALLY UNNECESSARY.
I’m with ya on that one.
Especially when I see Obama jetting all over the planet, Washington lit up all night, every night, even empty ‘office’ buildings. And the rich using what ever amount they want to, while telling us that aren’t rich, we have to change our ways!
I’ll use what I want. At least as long as I can afford to. Til Obama’s damage is out of my reach.
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