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 Starve the Nuclear industry of money= solar homes 
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Joined: Sun Mar 30, 2014 12:13 pm
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Just a wish.
One Million homes with 4kw of OFF grid solar power on each= 4GW of power (same as 4, full sized nuke polluters). That would be one million fewer customers (slaves) giving money to the big nuke companies each month, big coal, big gas, etc.

Now if just 10 million more people put solar on their homes, it would be enough to totally replace 40 nuclear plants.

Yes,, OFF grid requires you to have deep cycle batteries to operate when the sun don't shine. (Duh).

Some countries are very big into solar production. Germany, Spain, Israel, etc.
Some are stupidly into nutjob nuclear (France, Japan).
TOO expensive? www.sunelec.com sells panels..for about $1/watt. So, you could buy 4kw of panels for about $4,000. Buy all the other stuff needed, will add another $6,000 to it ($10k).

How valuable is your family, your wife, kids, dog, living without cancer? Put a price on THAT.


Wed Apr 16, 2014 2:30 pm
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:idea: A quick start would be for everyone to go and buy one new LED bulb a week to replace one of their often used standard house bulbs.

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Wed Apr 16, 2014 2:38 pm
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Great Idea KC.
A couple years ago, I actually went out (Home Depot) and bought enough CF bulbs to replace every bulb in my house.
Garage, basement, hallways, porch, etc..and my electric bills DROPPED by more than $10 / month.
Later, I went nuts, and even put them inside the fridge,, NOT to save light bills,,but to reduce the amount of HEAT that is created inside the fridge when the light comes on. Not sure if this really helps or not.
But the typical FRIDGE bulb,,is 40w or 60w,,and I installed the 24w CF (100w equivalent) and everything is a LOT brighter while using LESS power (and making LESS heat.)

A LOT of people don't know there is a difference in Light Color-quality. Soft White (also called Warm White), is the Krapp white, Yellow, orange, poor light output. I HATE "S.W." bulbs.

The 2 levels of light that I like, are the Bright White & Daylight.

I also look at the prices for LED vs. CF. Dollar for Dollar,, Lumens, and Hours of Life... the CF's are better bang for the buck. LUmens / dollars / hours of life,, the CF's still win.

The LED's are wonderful, but they "OVER drive them" to get MORE Lumens (and greatly reduce the lifespan). The GOOD CF's live for 10,000 hours,, get a 4 pack (of the 100w equivalent = 24 watts) at Home Depot for about $6.

A 100w "equivalent" LED,,, typically has a rated lifespan of about 20,000 hours.. maybe as high as 30,000 hours. (but when you DON'T over-drive an LED,,it will last for 100,000 hours.. but ALL the lighting companies OVER DRIVE it.)

True,, the LED will put out about 10-20% MORE light per watt consumed. But it's pretty close,,and by the time you convert Dollars / lifespan & Lumens,, the CF's are the winners.

If people would spend just $20 for about 12 CF's and install them right away,, it would make a BIG difference. But stay AWAY from the "Warm white / Soft white"..those are GARBAGE.. good ONLY for bedroom atmosphere,,but NOT for real lighting.


Wed Apr 16, 2014 3:13 pm
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I have to disagree with you there. I have not found CF bulbs to be the best bang for the buck. It might seem like that when you compare the shelf price for a new CF vs. LED bulb, but none of the many CF bulbs I have bought in the past ever last as long as they say on the box. As for LED bulbs, I have not yet had one burn out and my first one bought was off the internet for about $20 maybe 10 years ago. The LED bulb I bought like 10 years ago off the internet was a standard size bulb but very few LEDs inside and the Lumens was low. I knew that when I bought it, I only wanted to test the bulb and use it as a night light for our kids room. The kids do not need a nightlight anymore so for the past 3 years I have had the light in our garages side door 24/7. I am very pleased with the LEDs I have bought so far even though they cost an arm & leg to buy. We have them everywhere in the house. I even replaced all the bulbs at my parents house over a year ago and my Mom says she sees at least a $30 per month difference in her monthly bill from the previous year.

:arrow: Don't forget the mercury in the CF bulbs, another reason to avoid them.

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Wed Apr 16, 2014 3:59 pm
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I keep watching the LED prices. When they come out with the 100w equivalent bulbs, with 3500-5000K color rating, and prices down around $8 each, I'll change over.
Bright white=3500K color
Daylight= 5000-5500K color rating.
But I've never seen them any cheaper than about $30 per bulb, and I don't know if I see them any brighter than about 60w or 75w equivalent. I'd even buy a few of them at the $10 price range.

You certainly are right about some of the CF's not living up to their advertized hours of life. I always shop for the 10k hour bulbs, and here's a great tip I got from a friend.
Use a Felt Tip marker pen,, and write the installation date on the Base as you install them. THEN,, it is easy to track how long they survive. (Keep your receipts, & if they die too quickly, try to get a refund.)

I've noticed, a LOT of store paper receipts,, lose their "ink" after a few months (cheap ink,, or clever way to prevent you from getting a refund?) So, make a digital copy of it,, or even put it between some sheets of Saran wrap, into a file folder, and store it in the freezer (for those very important warranty items such as a new fridge, washing machine, car tires, or other items that cost $300-1000.) He told me that Walmart USED to have a policy of NOT honoring any type of COPY, it HAD to be the original paper, but the ink always faded away in just a few months. But Walmart lost some lawsuit over it, and now will honor a copy of the original.

A "Mother Earth News" type of energy saving tip, is to divert the hot water tank ''cold water inlet pipe'',, over to the bathtub drain, make a dozen wraps of soft-copper tubing around that drain,, and then put it into the inlet of the hot water tank. Then, every time you take a SHOWER, all the hot water going down the drain, will PRE-HEAT the COLD water going into the hot water tank.
It says that you recapture about 20-30% of the BTU's that would have been lost. But, if you use the extra hot water, just to stay longer in the shower until it gets cold,, you haven't saved any money,, you just got to enjoy more minutes of a hot shower. Hahaha.


Thu Apr 17, 2014 8:00 am
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I did manage to reduce my highest (monthly) energy bills,, the highest used to be around $200-250 during the worst heating or cooling months.. now it's NOT any higher than $85. WOW!!!
Along with changing ALL my bulbs to the high efficiency bulbs, I also changed my HEAT PUMP system, from "Central heating & cooling".. into the "Ductless / mini split" type.
I also chose a very high efficiency type. The original system was rated at "SEER 10".. and the new one is rated at "SEER 20".

I was able to DOWNSIZE how many BTU's I needed,,by exactly 33% because the ductless does not have all those "duct losses" which can be as high as 30%. AND, when you DOUBLE the SEER rating,, it means you'll get the SAME BTU's,, at HALF the amount of electricity consumed.

My place is not, SOoo efficient, it will be easier to switch over to 100% off-grid solar power. But even now, I'm doing MY part to starve the big energy companies of getting money.
My electricity costs me 15c / kw-hr & the METER fee is $25/month. When I go "off grid", I'll be saving $300 / year just in the cost of the METER fees. (every 10 years of saved meter fees, would be enough to buy a NEW set of batteries. At least that money won't be going to the nuclear grid company.)
I've got everything "priced" for a solar conversion, total price will cost me $13,000 (includes 6kw of panels, batteries, and all other details.)
(already got the panels from www.sunelec.com = $1 / watt.)
Considering my bill WAS about $1,200-1,400 / year, I'll be totally paid off in about 10 years.

A really good thing that helped me to make this choice,, was asking myself, "How long will it take for the METER bills to pay for itself?" (the answer?= "NEVER").


Thu Apr 17, 2014 8:14 am
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Thanks again for those added tips!

As for the LEDs, most of the fixtures I have them in use more than one light so I do not need to buy they more expensive LEDs but rather more of the cheaper lower output ones. For example our kitchen & one bathroom fixture uses 6 bulbs, the other bathroom 3 and the living room ceiling fan 6. All the bedroom fixtures use 2 and the hallway & front entry use just 1. I did buy the more expensive higher output lights to use outside in the driveway fixtures but get this, when they are on it screws up our local HD public TV channel signal so we do not use them as often as we had planned. I have not had any signal interference using the lower output LEDs or maybe it has more to do with the manufacture, I am not sure. Since we know that those signals are RF radiation this is also something to consider when using LEDs.

You mentioned heater, we try to use our kerosene heater as much as we can in the middle of our living room with all the bedroom doors shut. We turn the regular furnace on at night. I figure cost wise it might be a wash or even cost me more but I also have to consider the added life to the furnace by only use it when needed. Plus I feel better by reducing the need of added electric from our local nuclear plant and having a backup heater is also gives me comfort. When summer comes, we will need to use the central AC system so the furnace blower motor will run lots then.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/DuraHeat-23-000-BTU-Kerosene-Portable-Heater-DH2304/100045793

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Thu Apr 17, 2014 2:56 pm
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KingCobra wrote:
:idea: A quick start would be for everyone to go and buy one new LED bulb a week to replace one of their often used standard house bulbs.


KC, I think their composition is a little scary.
http://www.gizmag.com/led-bulbs-found-to-contain-toxic-metals/17876/

If I accidentally broke a few in the house, Fukushima would be the least of my worries


Fri Apr 18, 2014 8:40 am
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Best price I've found on Kerosene Lanterns is listed here. (oil lanterns)

I have about 10 kerosene lamps.. 5 metal "hurricane lanterns" and 5, glass, house style. Best price for full size kerosene lanterns,, is from an Amish supply store =
These are the FULL size, LARGE bottom tank (so they won't tip over), nice lamps. They cost $15 each. Best to call and ask them how many to get the master-box size so they can give a better price (not having to unbox the wholesale box to rebox them for shipment.)

$15 each. One is not enough. You really will find that you need at least 4 of them, to carry around the yard, in the house, etc.

I cut a piece of aluminum foil and used it to make a reflector around the outside of part of the glass globe. throws the light in one direction better.

http://shop.woodwardcrossingscountrybasics.com/8-No-8-Dietz-Air-Pilot-Kerosene-Lantern-Blue-Plain-Trim-DHL-0008-AX.htm

The "Aladdin" lamps (with the mantle) are VERY bright,, very delicate-finicky, but give the light of about a 60w light bulb. Also get VERY hot, and they can cost more than $100. I've got ONE, they really will light up a room.

As for saving energy, it has been a struggle these last 10 years. The price of natural gas has fallen (temporarily) because of all the "fracking", but, FRACKING wells, (look at the charts) typically lose 50% of their output in about 24-36 months! (can lose up to 80%). So they have to drill more wells to offset the losses. (Look at google maps of Wyoming? (or other fracking nightmares), where you can easily see they ruined the landscape (wells every 500 feet in a grid-pattern). The price for gas will go back up. (see how Russia is increasing prices to Europe).

I researched a lot before spending about $3000 on a pair of 12,000 BTU "inverter style" heatpumps (SEER 20). (inverter type, is EASY start, low power, NO big surges to overtax the generator, solar, etc.)

They save SO much energy (this high rating, makes it cheaper than a standard gas furnace, and they work all the way down to 5 or 10 Below ZERO-F.) I've got one at each end of the house, (almost open floor plan). They do the entire place, and I can shut ONE down as needed. They do the work of the previous 36,000BTU heatpump.

They cost me, exactly 15c per hour each when running full blast. (of course, they don't run all the time either.) Consuming just 1000 watts to operate each one. This makes it easy to run them from SOLAR panels. (MY plan, I refuse to be "grid tied" at all. I don't want them to get ANY of my money.) And, if needed, I can easily run them from a small, backup generator (3kw) will run BOTH of them.

That's how I reduced my old, highest bills,, from $200/ $250,, down to just $85.

All I need now, is a small wood burner, (or a wood burning kitchen stove with a couple of gas burners too.) (propane, of course) Love those old antiques.

Selling power back to them? Hahaha. They SELL to me@ .15c / kw-hr.
They BUY it back@ .04c / kw-hr.

They don't pay you for all the ''distribution line charges", maintenance, sales tax, etc etc. And they'll still charge you ($10-30 per month) for the meter on your home,, so I'm getting rid of the meter and all those other fees. If I have any power left over, I'll make more toast, or I'll run a long wire to the neighbor and GIVE some FREE,, (or buy a meter from Ebay and sell him some power for 33% cheaper than the power company charges him.)

Might even give him some FOR FREE (just to get him tempted into buying his OWN panels after he sees how good it works.)

I hope to install my 6kw of panels this summer! You can buy "off gird" inverters on Ebay, really good prices. About $800 will give you a 6kw or 7kw unit (with TRIPLE surge capacity, TRUE sine wave output.) Never use those $100 or $199 big inverters except for emergency backup, because they are "modified sine wave",, JUNK wave.. (really just a 2 step square wave). Will make motors get hotter, can burn them up after a while.

Will be using "superstrut / unistrut" as for mounting rails (Lowes=$20 / 10ft rail.) also good for making LOTS of things. Look it up, you'll see what I mean. (don't want to buy the dedicated solar mounting rails,, they cost about $10/foot !!! Superstrut (gold galvanized for OUTDOOR use) cost only $2 / foot & can be used for OTHER projects. It's universal building material.

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Kerosene heaters. I've got a couple myself. One round one like yours, and one of the smaller (10k BTU) rectangular models (The round ones have to be in the middle of a room, away from everything because they get hot all around), but I really prefer the rectangular models because they can be pushed closer (but away) from the wall. Those rectangular ones, also have the removable fuel tank, makes it easy to fill the tank outside and pop it back into the heater.

I keep them as emergency-backup, and keep about 20 or 30 gallons of kerosene in the shed.


Fri Apr 18, 2014 8:45 am
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This has really turned out to be a useful thread packed with great information, thanks to all. 8-)

I have some questions but no time right now to correctly ask them.

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http://netc.com/chart/view.php?n=1%3AEB5A139C


Fri Apr 18, 2014 4:47 pm
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