When you do anything like this to a home you get a tax credit and a rebate from the utility companies and a bit from the state and federal government. It usually funds 10% up to 70% depending on the scenario. All of the companies that sell and install these systems also give very low interest credit so you pay them instead of utility bills. The money you save in utilities after the first few years more than pays for the entire system.
The real problem is that the Federal Government has spent over $3,000,000,000,000.00 (three trillion) in Iraq and billions more in Afghanistan not to mention the tens of trillions spent on defense and space exploration. On top of all of that there are hundreds of trillions spent purchasing oil/gasoline and hundreds of trillions more spend exploring and drilling for it.
On top of that trillions are spent on purchasing, mining and processing copper, aluminum and coal for power plants and hundreds of thousands of miles of power lines and building power plants.
If just a small percent of these hundreds of trillions of dollars was spent developing homes like this thru Federal and State Government grants and another small percentage was spent giving larger Federal and State rebates and tax credits for folks who covert their existing homes then we would not need to go to war for oil and not need to explore and drill for oil, copper, aluminum and coal so much.
6 Comments
honkeytonk73What was the cost for the house though? Strive to drive down costs of even one part of that system, and we'll make some strides forward. I nearly put a Geotherm system into my home about 6 years ago. I WISH I did. I went with a high efficiencly oil system (more common in New England). While it is quite good, and my home is quite efficient on it's own... I WISH the cost for the Geotherm system was less. I was looking at $8k for a high end oil system, or closer to $20k at the time for a basic geo system. The problem? Only 1-2 installers would handle Geotherm in the whole region at the time. As a result they overcharged like mad and cost effective maintenance of the system was questionable, making it impractical for most homeowners.
rougyI feel like this technology is totally supressed.
We have the power to rid ourselves of the usual power grid. You know? When they send you a bill for $95 a month even when you took pains to shut off every light and power cord.
But the Power Grid don't like that.
"We can't live without oil!" (snicker).
"A black man cain't never be an NFL coach." I heard that shit too.
I heard a lot of "cain't never" coming out of ignorant mouths.
So what is all that goo under rich people's investments?
Nutty bastards in robes.
ShakaUVM"Mike have proven it's possible to power his house from the sun."
Well sure, but this is not a "solution". Note how he doesn't say how much he spent on it. The only numbers he gives is how much cheaper his monthly rate is.
I've looked into alternative energy solutions for my home. Solar components alone run at an amortized cost of about twice your utility rate over 8 years. Thus, with a 50% subsidy in California, a solar system will break even in about 8 years. I can't even begin to guess how much more expensive than a normal solar system all these extra components and specialized units are. Not to mention the "state of the art geothermal" unit. The announcer just said, "Its expensive, but with sponsorship, it all came together." Which is no answer at all.
Unfortunately, this is the energy "solution" a lot of liberals have -- spend $100,000 to $200,000 per house to get a "sustainable" solution. Of course, for $100k, I can invest the money into a CD, and get enough money back on the interest to cover my power bills and then some.
Not a solution at all.
Constitutional_PatriotAll systemic solutions start out expensive. Fact of engineering lifecycles.
Add a little competition for these solutions and watch the cost go down.
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