Net metering lets you use the company supplying your power as an infinite battery. When you produce excess power your meter spins backwards, when you need more power than you are producing your meter spins forwards.
In California, you can store excess power "in the grid", however once per year, your power provider gets to take the excess you've produced and keep it. Thats the deal.
It still a good deal, you just have to arrange the taking date to be a time in which you have no excess in the grid and it reduces wear and tear on batteries.
As of October 2007 natural gas is still cheaper to use for various energy purposes than electricity. On my last bill natural gas was a quarter the price of electricity for the same purpose. However, keep in mind that electricity prices vary wildly around the country and have odd scales in some jurisdictions. Here I use the last dollar cost. How much the next unit of energy would cost me.
29.3 kWh of electricity are required to produce 100,000 BTUs.
one therm of natural gas = 100,000 BTUs = $1.25 via PG&E
29.3 kWh of electricity = 29.3 * $0.23 = $5.29 via PG&E
Of course, you may want energy indepedence more than economy. I'm told by most you can't beat the economices of buying your energy.
When calculating your cost for electricity you need to add all the electricity related costs together. Including the electricity charge, transmission charge, distribution charge, taxes. You should also include the income taxes you pay.
For example if you add all those charges together and get $0.20 per kWh and your top income tax bracket including California income tax is (36+11) 47% then your paying $0.20 * 1.47 = $0.29 per kWh.
When you generate your own electricity you are offsetting the dollars you pay PG&E and the dollars you pay the tax man.
You absolutely need to keep shadows off your solar panels. Even a small shadow will cause a dramatic drop in output while it moves across your panels. There is a California Law which allows you to have sun obstructing obstacles removed from your neighbors property.
You won't win purely economically. Its up to you. I'm currently using gas where possible.
One place I deviate from fellow energy independence cohorts is in flourescent lighting. After considering the energy savings verses the environmental costs (mercury, lead, landfill requirements) I have decided against flourescent lighting.
Besides flourescent light sucks.
Hold out for LED based lighting, which is ten times more efficient than flourescent and have 100,000 hour life times. Under typical usage your grand children will be using the same LED based light bulbs.
If you have to do something, use Halogens. Halogens are about twice as energy efficient as incandescent for the same amount of light.
Sadly, another friend, also a Staber owner, experienced the same problems and scrapped his Staber too.
Luckily today there are plenty of quality low energy washing machines made by reputable companies. I have a Sears Kenmore Ultra now.
The consensus is that if professionally installed the time to recover the cost of your investment in new windows is 10 to 30 years.
The money is better invested and waiting for a more cost effective solution.
Just go around with caulk and make sure you don't have any leaks.
Producing the power to run the pool pump will probably not be worth the increase in the size of the system.
You do not. I paid about $2500 more to have battery backup. You do not need batteries for any purpose other than backup.
It's too expensive now. But it's coming. 1/10th the energy and 10 times the lifetime of flourescent. And it doesn't flicker.
By the way, I have made very nice LED bulbs myself, but for some reason the "industry" seems unable to do so. I am not sure what is going on there.
thin-film solar has been making promises for years and has not come through. It seems every year someone is investing milllions in some thin-film technology which will not work out. "Just say no" to thin-film solar and the other revolutionary technologies which are just around the corner.
Fuel Cell's convert Hydrogen directly into electricity.
A Fuel Cell home generator was supposed to be available in 2001 from GE called the Home Micro Gen or HomeGen. It should have no problem powering your house. If you've been holding your breath for this you are most certainly dead by now.
However, a Fuel cell needs Hydrogen. The GE HomeGen takes in Propane or Natural Gas (both carbon based fuels) It separates the Hydrogens from the carbons and feeds the hydrogen into the fuel cell, and electricity comes out the other end.
So what does it do with all the separated out Carbon? It releases it as the "evil green house gas" CO2.
But it produces a lot less of it than your local power plant does when it converts natural gas, oil, or coal into electricity.
If you could get delivery of hydrogen to a tank, you could eliminate the CO2 emisions.
The "holy grail" is for you to pour water (H2O) into a system, and use electrolysis to separate the H2O into H (hydrogen) and O2 (oxygen). Feed the H into the fuel cell, and either release the O2 or store it in a bottle and sell it to your local O2 supplier. This solution does not seem to be coming any time soon.
I like it. You have to look at it as a cool toy and a hobby. Cost wise you might even break even or with the help of the State of California get ahead.