Solar House Data

Here is the latest data.  Not quite a $8 electric bill this month, but we are closer.

Average Kw used/day - 5.19
Cost/day - $0.93
Yearly energy costs - $341.18

Over the past 16 months we have

• Bought 3651 Kw
• Sold 961 Kw

This data is a $0.03 reduction from last month.  I think it is fair to say now that we have built a house that runs on a dollar a day.

Change

It finally dawned on me the other day that I cannot change someone else.  Maybe this realization comes with age or I am just a slow learner, but either way I just figured it out.  I am a change agent.  I like change and believe that change is what keeps us going.  Keeps us looking down the road and wondering what lies around the next corner or over the horizon.  Change is what motivates us to rise out of bed, greet the sun and experience a new day.  The problem with change, is that it does not always take us where we expected we would be, and then suddenly we find ourselves in a place that is less comfortable than we are used to.  This is not always bad and sometimes opens new doors and directions that we would not have chosen otherwise.  Our journey to a more simple life has presented numerous opportunities for change.  Some have been good changes and others less than comfortable, but I would not trade any of them.  We made the change to a more simple life and have been enjoying its rewards, but this change would not have come had someone else tried to change us.

True change comes from a compassionate honest introspection into ones own life.

Namaste


More house data soon.  I should have all the winter data and our new carbon footprint.
 

To Be Hopeful

Here is quote from Howard Zinn

“To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places–and there are so many–where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory”. 

How well does solar heating work?????

We have been running completely on the sun for the past 5 days.  Our house has been toasty warm and we have had plenty of hot water.  We also have not had a fire in over 6 days and our yearly wood use is just over a cord.    Today we generated just over 7Kw of electricity and our last electric bill was about $24.  So the answer is solar works.

Nothing to say from a philosophical perspective, but don't worry I am brewing up something good.

The Constant Struggle

Choosing to live a simple life can be a constant struggle.  Our project this year is a barn.  The struggle is in the desire to build a bigger barn vs a smaller barn.  Whenever I start planning a project my tendency is to oversize and overbuild.  Use a 2x6 where a 2x4 would be more than adequate.  Make it 14x20 instead of 12x18.  How much of barn do we need??  Just enough to do what we need to and no more or should you build it bigger for future needs??  I constantly have to push aside how my mind has been programed and think smaller.  For my entire life it has always been "bigger".  Just look at the size of soda bottles over the past 40 years.  This programming of bigger has done nothing to help me and only caused me to consume more.  Others  (Corporations)  have made out at my expense.   No more,  I am building a 12x18 workshop and a 12x12 place for the future goats. Whatever I cannot build in the barn will have to wait until summer and get built outside.

A common question for our house is how many square feet.  I used to give the standard answers of around 1100, but recently I realized that this is the wrong answer.  The correct answer is 217,000.  This is the size of the land we "own".  Our house is only but a small percentage of that and the fact is we live in much more than our physical dwelling.  So my construction costs were $1.53 a square foot.  Not too bad.

More house data next electric bill, however I am hopeful that this month will be the $8 month.  We have had lots of sunshine and solar heat has been cranking.  In addition we are just at 1 cord of wood for this year, which is a reduction by 1/2 cord over last year.

Quote of the Day

How do you measure beauty.  "Heres the yardstick:  That which deprives another cannot be beautiful"

William Copperthwaite from A Handmade Life.  In search of simplicity

Cranking out the BTU's

We have had a run on sunny days and we are cranking out the BTU's.  Yesterday our tank was at its max temp and was dumping excess heat into the house by noon.  This meant that on a mid February day with a 14 degree night and a 32 degree day we used nothing but the sun for heat.  How is this possible????

Keep the house size small
Insulate and seal drafts

If so.....
Then install a solar heating system

If not......
Install a solar domestic hot-water system even if you house is large and drafty

Solar hot-water works.  As I say in a lecture I give on solar.  This is a no brainer.  The answer is as clear as the sun coming up every day.  We no longer need to debate this.  Solar hot water is the way to energy independence and to eliminate our dependence on fossil fuels.  It uses nothing but glass, copper and existing technology.  It can be retrofitted to any house with a sunny exposure and is cheap (30% federal rebate and in Maine you get $1000)

"A 1000 sq ft house will always be greener than a 2000 sq ft house and a old house (retrofitted with good windows and insulation) will always be greener than a new house."

I have a new book recommendation....

Hot, Flat and Crowded.  The author is opinionated and a bit ego centered, but presents a compelling argument for a re-tooling of America to lead the world on sustainability and eliminate support for the dictators that control the worlds oil reserves.  Basically how to stop America from buying the rope that is going to hang us.  Just a warning....  The first half is really depressing.

Ben

Giddy with Solar Excitement

Today was the first day we have not added any heat to the house.  We had an 18 degree night, the sun was bright and the house went to 70 degrees.  We did not have to burn any wood and had a completely carbon free day.  We also created over 6 Kw of electricity.  So this is proof that a solar home in the cold coast of Maine works.  I am looking forward to the rest of week as the forecast is for a run of bright and sunny days.  I should have more data soon and am still after the holy grail of an $8 electric bill.  Maybe February will be the month.

Sometimes is takes 40 people to encourage you

Lately I have been frustrated with the general publics ability to embrace even the most simple enviromental changes  (A pay as you throw program for garbage).  Even if we are not driving off the cliff of global warming, there are things we can do to make our environment a little cleaner. I  can get so mad, angry and just want to retreat into my own private world and give up on my enviromental convicitons.  Untill.....

30 people give up a Saturday morning and show up at a talk on solar energy.  Not only show up, but are thirsty for knowledge on how to move themselves or family to more renewable energy.  What a feeling to have a diverse group of people about to embrace something as important as solar energy, give of their time to listen to me speak of my experiences and convictions.  I am truely humbled.

Recently I started reading a book call "Mindfully Green" by Stephanie Kaza.  She talks of the green movement making a transformation from a green lifestyle to a green lifeway.  In addition she writes of methods to allow the frustration of making progress to be transformed into new energy.  Stop.  Breath.  Let the feelings of frustration wash over you.  Breath.  Let the feelings awaken what lies at the bottom of your convictions to help carry you through.  Often when I am in meditation, I have a vision in which I see this quiet peaceful movement of people, a movement that is hidden from view and obscured by critics.  It is a movement that is slowly growing and putting down a solid foundation of mutual trust and sending out branches of peace.  It is a movement that will grow quietly in the shadows until one day blossom, and at that time the momemtum will be so great that even the critics will be silenced and we will all live once again in harmony with our earth, its creatures and each other.  I see this movement every time I talk with someone who has simple living in their heart.  (This last sentence given to me by my 7 year old).

Speaking to groups of people always reminds me of how expansive the movement can grow.  Two people speak to 30.  30 people speak to 60 more.  60 more speak to 120, and so the movement grows.

Stand true to your convictions and speak out to those that will listen.  Together we can all be the change we want to see in the world.

Stay warm, surround yourself with positive people and stay close to them.

Photos, Solar and a little Gaia Worship

Photos

Here is a link to see more photos of the house.  These were taken by our friend Blueberry and were taken just after we moved into a 95% done house.  We are now 97% done.

http://picasaweb.google.com/ShelterInstitute/SmallFootprint?feat=content_notification#

Solar

There will be a free talk on active solar at Shelter Institute this coming Saturaday January 30th.  Give them a call if you are interested.  Revision Energy will be there to talk nuts and bolts and I will be presenting our house and how we came to live in a solar home.

Just as a disclosure I have no financial interest in any of the companies on this blog, but if anyone wants to take a financial interest in me that would be OK.

Gaia worship and simplicity

I recieved a comment giving me compliments on my blog with the suggestion that I don't let it get sidetracked into Gaia worship.  I have been pondering that over the past several weeks and I don't see that happening, but here is the problem.

We can all change a light bulb, use less energy, drive less, eat local, live in a small house, ditch the television and do every thing that all the "green" books tell us to do.  This is certainly a great step, but until society has a cosmic shift, call it a spiritual shift, we will never attain what is needed to truly live in harmony with our world.  Modern society has lost a connection with the earth, which is one reason it is so easy to trash the place.  Whenever, through out history, one group wants something another has they justify their actions by making the rationalization that they are better, or that the other group is not civilized.  They hide behind a religion or government to deflect the shame and guilt that the actions have created.  I would dare make the assumption that most of the population of the United States could not sit in nature for 30 minutes and just be there.  We have shielded ourselves in a maze of concrete, steel and glass that isolates us from that which gives us life.

What we need is more Gaia worship and less Gaia destruction.  What is Gaia???  It is that which sustains our lives, gives us life and provides the inspiration in all that we see as beautiful.  I do not think that we need to set up a Gaia Worship Religion, nor do I think that we need to change or challenge anyone's spiritual beliefs.  What I see as necessary is a refocusing and an integration of our green actions with our spiritual beliefs, what ever spiritual beliefs those are.

I will try hard not to let this blog become a Gaia worship blog, but I will encourage people to make that spiritual leap to simple living.

Namaste

Simple Snowman

Simple snowman, but highly intelligent.

Glorious Sun Shine Down on Me

       The rays of sun touch every square inch of this planet.  They touch every living thing (except those funky looking sea creatures at the bottom of ocean and the mold growing in my refrigerator on that 2 week old burrito) on this earth.  In addition every creature, fungus and bacteria depends upon our closet star we call the sun.  (When I speak of fungus I am referring to the mushroom variety not the political.)  We have recently had a run on sunny days and the solar has been cranking out the BTU's.  What is it about the sun????  People have worshiped it for eons and one could make the point that as humans gained more knowledge about our solar system, the sun was no longer a mysterious thing, so humans created "god" to replace what they could not explain.  What is that common thread that connects all living things, and what does simple living have to do with that thread?

      My family has recently started to weave.  Weaving involves a very long thread intertwined with other very long threads.  Everyone know what happens when you loose control of a very long thread.  At least when I do I end up with a big knot.  There is no problem with a long thread as long as you keep it away from itself.  You could lay out a mile long thread and never get a knot as long as it never doubles back on itself.  So, if everything on the planet is connected by a common thread, then what happens when something along that thread decides to gather more.

     We humans only comprise a very small segment of this thread (compare our numbers to the variety of plants or insects on the earth) and we have only been a part of this thread for a very short period of time, but we seem to be bunching up this thread and taking more than our share.  We have essentially created one huge, nasty and tangled knot.  Now for the sticky part.

What happens when you cannot get the knot undone????

You get the scissors and cut it out.

Guess who owns this thread.......

I don't know the answer.  Some say Gaia, Allah, God, Great Spirit, Gods, Aliens, Dolphins, or no one.  But, I can be sure that it is probably not the humans.

Namaste

More house data soon.  We are on target to use only one cord of wood.

Want to learn more about solar?

There is a free workshop on active solar on January 30th at the Shelter Institute.  Come learn about solar hot water and electric.  There will an representative from Revision Energy and I will be talking about our house.  There will be time to answer any questions after the talk.  This is a free course and if you love good quality tools you will not be disappointed.  Shelter Institute has one of the best selections of hand tools.  Click on the Shelter Blog link and let them know you are coming.  See you there.

Affordable solar

Everyone always talks about the return on investment when it comes to solar.  When are my panels going to break even?  How many years?  This to me is a silly question.  No one ever asks when the refrigerator, TV, furnace, car, video game is going to break even.  I consider my solar a integral part of the house, something that the house couldn't be without.  I have not found the solar additions to the house any more expensive than say a regular furnace.  What we did was eliminate some to the things that we felt are not neccessary in the house and shift the costs over to the solar.  This is what we found we could do without.

1.  A basement (our last one was a storage space for stuff we didn't use anymore)
2.  Extra bathrooms (each bath costs about $5,000 not to mention the time to clean each one)
3.  1000 sq ft of living space, but we opened up to the outdoors.  Cozy in the Winter and ever so spacious in the summer.
4.  Dishwasher
5.  Microwave
6.  Television  (I had a TV addiction)
7.  Extra kitchen space
8.  Hallways
9.  Storage space (we gave away most of our extra stuff when we moved, and now we have a reason not to accumulate more stuff)

So all this allowed us to put up solar with no additional cost to the construction.  Now if we could only get the world to cost shift what we spend on weapons we could cure hunger, poverty, and provide an education for every child in the world.

To paraphrase John Lennon

If everyone in the world wanted peace as much as they do a cell phone we would all know everlasting peace.

Latest photo

This is a recent photo of the back of the house.  Solar hot water tubes on the roof and the awning over the windows is the solar electric.  We haven't made much hot water lately, but hoping for some sun soon.

New House Data

December was as always a cloudy month and it was reflected in our solar output, but the good news is the days are getting longer.  Solstice has gone by and we have nothing but more sun to see every day.  Good thing I lit the bon fire to wake the sun up.

Average Kw used each day 5.34
Cost per day $0.96
Wood 60 cu ft (1/2 cord) over 2 months

January should have more sun and hopefully we can get more heating days out of the solar hot water.

Happy New Year