Going Green

As I mentioned in the last post, the goal is to reduce the amount paid for propane and electricity by 60%.  Not only does this reduction put more money in our pocket, it increases the value of the home. I believe that an energy efficient home is going to become a hot issue with buyers as the cost of energy continues to increase. More over, the goal is to keep the cost recovery period to a minimum. Achieving the goal requires both conservation and alternate forms of energy.

For the exterior of the home, the goals include:

1. Using xerscaping to reduce the demand for water. For those of us that use a well, it means less energy cost for pumping water. Besides, native plants survive the rough conditions of our climate.
2. Drip irrigation saves water, and improves water delivery to plants.
3. Solar power for exterior lighting, and control of drip irrigation systems.

For the home, itself, the goals are:

1. Selecting the best insulation.
2. Minimizing air leaks.
3. Use of solar energy for hot water, and for heating.
4. Use of solar energy to generate electricity to power 12 volt appliances. Without getting fancy, every device that can run off a car battery does not need to run off electricity purchased from the grid.
5. Use of wind mills to generate power. I am not concerned about selling power back to the grid, as this requires a lot of expensive equipment. I am talking using wind power when available, and supplementing with purchased power.
6. While it fall in both categories, the goal is to use solar power to drive the well pumps. It may also be wind power.

As much of the work as possibile will be done as a do-it-yourself projects. This reduces costs, and shortens the cost recovery period. This is not going to be like the proposed Red Lodge water treatmet plant that plans on spending $300,000 on solar electricity to save $8,000 a year. Nor, does it include spending $17,000 on a geothermal system with a 20 year cost recovery, which doesn’t include maintenance costs.