As I sit here, the clock reads a little after 5pm. The fact I spent the last of my energy trying to get up, tripped over my PC's power cord and then the cat, just before walking into the door frame indicates that darkness has crept up on me. This, combined with the loss of feeling in my fingers points to the fact it is indeed, winter.
Great. Combined with icy roads, short, cold days and nothing but commercials about holiday gifts on TV there is one other thing I really dislike about winter. Energy bills; electricity, wood, oil or gas, somehow we've all got to keep our fingers from freezing when day time highs are in the 30's.
So, a month or two ago when a friend told me he'd taken a look at Bill Ford's Make Home Energy system I began to wonder this; Exactly how much money could be saved this winter if someone got up, decided to do this themselves and not pay a multi-national corporation quite such hefty bills and made their own energy?
As I was fast finding out, it is completely possible to create your own renewable energy source, for under $200. I mean, around the time he was looking for this project, my friend was also offered a diesel generator to power his house at a cost of over $1200, and he still had to buy the fuel to put in it! How exactly does that help save fuel and conserve energy I wondered?
In a rather large, renewable energy powered nutshell, Bill's latest book is a detailed guide that is written with clear instructions to assist you in creating low cost solar panels and windmills. I figured since we got lots of both bright sun and strong winds, this should be just the ticket. His guide covers everything from finding materials for your solar panels and windmills (insert Craigslist..!) to installing the systems in your home. The idea being you won't have to look for outside information during any step in the process.
Great! I had to take a look and even with my extremely limited ability to follow instructions, I could have and should have, put this to use! It really is a wonderful step-by-step guide written for anyone who is looking for a cost effective way to reduce their energy bills, not just over the winter but for seasons to come.
How much do we spend on air conditioning per house per year? Let's face it, even with so much sunshine to harness, who has $20,000 spare for a commercially available renewable home energy system? In case you weren't aware, there's a recession at the moment.
With my friend's house now sporting two small solar panels and some kind of retractable windmill device, I went round for coffee. Well, the lights were on and the coffee was hot. Good start.
I was of course skeptical and things did look a little 'home made' but was assured the lighting and hot water we were enjoying currently was costing a grand total of 0. Zero, nada, nothing. Meanwhile, back my place, the boiler was happily heating all the water it could, using plenty of gas and charging me handsomely for the privilege. I wasn't even there!
If after just 6 weeks his system had almost paid for itself and the only cost was some time and effort spent sourcing parts and assembling some panels with the kids, what's stopping many more good citizens following suit?
While the book can't promise to build your renewable energy system for you, it supplies the tips and techniques you need to know to do it yourself and save not only your hard earned, but alarmingly scarce and increasingly expensive natural resources. That can be nothing but a good thing.
A family project over the holidays anyone? I recommend giving this a go, even the technophobes amongst you have nothing to lose and lots of green green energy to gain....
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