Disclaimer
Before I start on this project I want to make it very clear that I do not profess to be any kind of expert. I do not have a degree in chemical or physical science and I do not work for any company that produces alternative energy products. What I do have is a desire to reduce my energy bill and my carbon footprint. I also have a few decades worth of experience building, programming and fixing machines, computers, and devices of all kinds. I am an inventor and like to share my ideas. If you find what I do here helpful, please let me know. Likewise if you think I have made a mistake in calculation or education, please also let me know. The comment function on this blog is completely active and open.
Having said the above, I hope that this information can help others who are interested in exploring alternative energy sources. I have put considerable time into the thoughts around it including the debate as to whether there is value in it at all. My initial focus is on solar power because that seems to be a prevalent theme, but I plan to explore other energy sources as well.
The project will be blogged out completely free of charge to anyone interested in consuming it. I plan to explore the why, how, what, and when, of the whole alternative energy question, but also explore the construction of solar panels, generators, so-called "free-energy" systems and the like. At this point I have no idea if any of it will work or be useful, but you are welcome to come along for the ride.
Why?
Well why not? Oh wait, that is explained in the next section. Here's a good reason - have you looked at your power bill lately? Over the past few years I have watched my home energy bill climb dramatically and yet I have made no additions to my house, no insulation has evaporated, no energy consuming devices have been added. In fact the opposite is true - I have replaced my furnace with a high efficiency model, sealed all the cracks I paid an energy expert to identify, replaced inefficient windows, appliances and televisions with energy efficient models and started to unplug all those devices that sit on standby consuming power like mini vampires. Still it seems that all I have done is spend money on products and services that did nothing to reduce my bill which continues to scale to epic proportions.
One thing I have noticed is that pundits for the energy companies keep telling us that North America has the lowest electric and natural gas cost in the world and we should be thanking them for some reason. "Experts" will point out that we pay 6 to 10 cents per Kilowatt for electricity and a similar amount per GigaJoule for Natural Gas and that we should be thanking them for keeping it so low. Some countries in Africa and Europe can pay up to 50 cents per Kilowatt for electricity so we should be thankful. I don't buy it.
What I have found examining my own energy bill is that the consumer cost of energy is really about double what the marketing tells us. Here in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, I am paying 8 cents per Kilowatt which does seem reasonable. However, when you add in the fees, taxes, assessments, levies, and riders, the actual amount I pay is closer to 17 cents per kilowatt. The marketing guys tend to leave that part out.
Between Electricity and Natural Gas, my energy bill has grown from approximately $200 per month to well over $500 per month in the past decade. That is insane, particularly considering the steps I have taken to reduce consumption. I probably have a few more things I can do to reduce usage, like turning my hot tub down or off… but I really like my hot tub. I could replace my 4 older business servers with a new, more efficient one running virtual machines - that is another project in the works. I could turn my water heater down (yet again), but I don't think I can go much lower and still call it "hot" water.
Here is a snippet of my actual electric bill. I actually do not think the real energy cost is excessive, but the additional administration fees and such that are calculated from the usage make it a killer bill.
This is the reasoning behind the exploration into alternative energy. Your own experience may be different and there are Internet resources that show Calgary the second highest delivered energy cost in North America - the highest being New York City. I have friends in California who pay a fraction of this and ironically, they are most likely using Canadian generated electricity. I would recommend evaluating the actual delivered cost before diving into this as a cost saving measure as from what I can tell so far, there is an investment to be made for long term lower monthly fees. In a later post I will go through the calculations to determine if this project is worth doing. For now I will leave that as my justification for continuing down this path.
Why Not?
Perhaps you don't want to "stick it to the man" as much as I do, but the delivered cost of energy where I live really makes me nuts. The emotional thing is probably not a good reason to replace all your energy needs with solar, wind, and bio-fuels. Don't do this just because it sounds cool. Don't do it because some marketing, or sales team said you cold get a good deal on materials. There is an investment to be made here and it is significant. I explained my reasoning for going forward in the previous section and they are my own personal reasons, but I think they are valid for anyone in the same situation. If you can save a few hundred dollars every month and feel you can deal with the installation and maintenance parts, then go for it. If you are planning to replace your main energy supply without reducing your energy profile as well, then this project may not be a good idea.
If you are not technically competent to do this yourself (soldering and math are required) then you may want to reconsider. There are services out there that will do it all for you, but they will also charge you through the nose for it. Here in Calgary, I looked into an opportunity to have someone install solar cells and all the gear needed to provide supplementary power, but it came at a cost approaching $30,000. In many jurisdictions (like Calgary) excess power you may produce is fed back into the grid but you do not have any right to charge for it and they don't necessarily provide storage batteries for long term need.
If none of that scares you yet, then read on. The next step is all the math to find out if this is really worth while doing.
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TAM
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