Does energy savings translate into lower profits for the energy companies?
If we lower our monthly bills by conserving energy, say by $50, doesn’t that mean lower profit for the energy companies?
If they just raise the rates to offset the cost, (wouldn’t that just figure?!) isn’t that redundant for us? I mean other than the benefit that we’re not wasting energy to pollute God’s earth.
Profit is not the issue. They can automate further, fire employees, or decrease their salaries. They can run more efficiently, also, by using higher temperatures, in many cases anyhow.
They need a Return of Investment, not gross profits, anyhow.
So there are many things that can be done. But..are they practical?
One gentleman ran on about running out of Oil…he needs to look at the new oil fields being opened in the Arctic by the Russians, etc., the stuff the UN is keeping in the ground in Africa while Africans die for lack of local energy, and the America/Canadian Rockies field, with wells already drilled, proven…and capped so as not to depress the prices for oil so our Congressmen who invested will make a bigger ROI…that are KNOWN already to cover all our needs for 300 years, and only the edges of the oil deposits are known.
Environmentalists are preventing finding out just how much IS there. But…Running out of oil is very unlikely!! And it could cost a lot less if the investors did not want to make huge killing later on.
Conserving energy is good IF it does not price the energy we need out of sight. Or destroy our nation.
Again, we can invest in all these new ideas for conservation, but they have to also return to us more on the investment than we put in. I would be glad to put in a closed-cycle geothermal heating and cooling system, like President Bush has in his home. But for me here, the costs to drill to a solid water table, and the piping, and the electric costs out here in the wilderness to run it would be prohibitive…I would never see a plus in my costs.
But after spending more than my house cost on just the geothermal heating, and then maintaining it, and the power to run it…when do I, or my children, really see a positive return? I do not get paid back for not burning wood and putting CO2 into the atmosphere! Besides, History shows that Global Warming has always been good in the past, not bad as Al and the Gorean 2500 say.
But you are right in that I would not be policing up old dead trees and burning them for heat!! And my electric costs would be way way up pumping water a half-mile up to the heat exchangers.
There is more involved than a simple savings, depending on how you cut that $50, and the complexity of the interactions I see. It is, I am afraid, a bit more complex that I an equipped to handle
But the economics I studied talked of that $50 you are no longer spending no longer going through many hands and its effects being multiplied.
I cannot give you a definitive answer, really…but I do have great misgivings about the detrimental potentials for that $50 savings in terms of a deflation of our economy, tho perhaps that would be good.
We shouldda listened to the likes of Ben Bova and others of the same persuasion, and gone to space 70 years ago, and built power plants there to microwave power back. So by now the plants would be paid off and run nearly automatically, and the savings would be real.
Same thing with other power sources I have investigated, or talked with users on. Break-evens are usually 15-30 years in the future, and unless Medicine make a huge breakthrough, I will never see such a break-even point.
So for now, it would be a real drag on my economy, so I could not easily purchase food, build other things, etc. Hurt the overall economy with my money tied up in something not paying off.
Think for a moment what it would do if you do save $50.month? How many jobs is that going to eliminate? How many salaries no longer there to spend on food, etc?
Those people then cannot spend on things, unless they get government handouts, paid for by your taxes, and with the resulting waste and graft of a huge welfare program. I think the total economic impact has to be carefully studied in a culture so inter-related as ours. Not like each family is an island unto itself, like pioneer days.
Might be nice if we could all be self-sufficient and spend nothing, right? No need for money, etc.
How is renewable energy good for the economy?
Can renewable energy truly be good for the economy, and how so?
renewable energy can be good once we have a storage system to store the sun’s, wind’s, etc’s energy and use it when we need it.
It is good for the economy because it is getting more and more expensive to dig up conventionals.
Don’t Wait for the “Right Time” to Start Your Home Business
As the end of another year approaches, countless individuals are considering a future online business.
(more…)
10 Ways To Save Money On Your Electricity Bill
Saving your hard earned cash on your next electricity bill just got easier than you ever imagined. In this article, I have compiled the a list of the top 10 tips to help navigate you on your campaign to save money and knock your electricity bill down. Along with each tip you will see the possible energy savings you can potentially expect to receive.
In addition to conserving your money, you will be making your house more enjoyable, and you will be helping to preserve the enviroment and your surroundings.
1. Adjust your water heater’s temperature to 120 degrees (save up to 10 percent on water heating costs; verify this by placing a thermometer below some of your taps). Most people in general don’t comprehend that their electric water heater is essentially constantly on heating the water.
If you will set the water temperature around 120 degrees your water heater will not have to re-heat the water as much as it does at hotter temperatures therefore saving you electricity and money.
2. Wash and dry only full loads of garments. Use cold water as much as possible (save 2 to 4 percent on your energy costs). This additionally saves time when you plan ahead and wash a full load of your items. Who wants to fold thir stuff more than necessary?
3. As a general rule, typically once a month, change your air conditioner’s air filter (save up to 5 percent on your yearly electricity bill). Moreover, this helps with dust and dirt in the air making your house cleaner and more enjoyable place to live.
4. Put compact fluorescent lights in high-use fixtures (save close to 66 percent on lighting cost per light). Furthermore, these type of lights manage to last much longer than the conventional light bulbs that many of us use today.
5. On hot, sunny days, keep your drapes shut on windows facing to the south and west (save 2 to 4 percent on your energy bill). The drapes will help keep the suns heat from heating up your house which means you use less energy to stay comfortable.
6. Keep your doors and vents shut in rooms that are not being used (save up to 3 percent on cooling costs). There is no need to spend money cooling off rooms that are not being used – this can be a huge savings depending on how many square feet you have in your house.
7. Caulk and weather-strip around windows and doors (save 1 to 4 percent on your energy bill). Many folks skip over this step, but heat seeping around cracks means you have to use more air condition and essentially more power which means you’re wasting money.
8. During hot weather place your thermostat at 78 degrees or above when you’re at your house, and at 85 degrees when no one is there (you save 1 to 2 percent per degree increased on your electricity bill). Additionally, use a ceiling fan or a fan that rotates back and forth. This can make a room appear nearly 4 degrees cooler!
9. Use your microwave oven instead of your conventional cooking range (save up to 50 percent on cooking costs). Microwaves are much more electricity efficient than ordinary traditional ovens. A traditional oven uses a lot of energy to heat up and to stay hot.
10. Take advantage of super low electricity rates from Ambit Energy and save up to 16% on your next electricity bill – for the average user this is over $250 per year!
This is one of best ways to save money right off the top of your electricity bill with doing almost nothing. All you have to do is switch your electricity provider and you can do it online in just a couple of minutes.
Ward Miller
http://www.articlesbase.com/finance-articles/10-ways-to-save-money-on-your-electricity-bill-72726.html
Is It Time For Solar Energy to Get Hot?
Is It Time For Solar Energy To Get Hot? By Tim Phelan
Solar energy has been around for quite a while and most people
don’t think about it much except for the ones who are already
into renewable sources of energy. Environmentalists have always
loved the idea of solar energy but what has kept it from going
more mainstream, being more widely used and looked upon as
something someone wants to spend money to install on their
property? There have been improvements in the technology of
solar energy, but has there been enough? Isn’t the war on terror
and the desire to be independent of foreign energy sources
enough to persuade people to use solar energy? At what point
will solar energy become the great and never ending source of
energy many of envisioned many years ago?
Well, I, for one, think that the time has just about come for
solar energy to really take off because of one reason: it will
be economically the right and smart thing to do.
Last year I was driving to Las Vegas from San Jose and when I
was just about three quarters of the way to my destination I
passed a sign that said something about a “solar farm.” I
glanced over and saw row upon row of solar panels sitting in the
middle of the dessert. This is about the only farm that could
survive in the dessert I thought to myself. Then I thought ”
Wow. Why can’t I do that?” In a smaller fashion of course
because of my limited resources. But I thought why not rent some
land and buy some of these panels and start my own little farm?
It made sense and actually it still makes sense to me.
I went home later and looked into the solar energy industry. I
wanted to see if this was possible now and I thought if these
people put all those panels out in the dessert and sold the
energy to others why can’t a small businessman?
Well, what I found out is that it isn’t quite possible to do
just yet. Why? Because the cost of the panels, property, labor
etc.. wasn’t low enough to make a profit for what you can sell
the energy for. The solar farm was more than likely subsidized
by the government. So I looked into the possibility of using
them on homes. This thought has been around for decades and you
do see the panels on more homes than you used to so I was
wondering if this was possible now. I found out that it just
takes too long for the average consumer to get their investment
back to consider putting solar panels on their homes.
The average time for a homeowner to get the money back on their
investment is anywhere from 12 years to 20 years. For this
industry to take off that figure I believe will have to go down
to around 5 to 7. Not that far really. It could actually go
below that.
Three things have to happen for the solar energy promise to
become a reality and for homeowners and entrepreneurs to decide
in large numbers to use solar panels to create electricity:
1. The price of the panels will have to decrease. 2. The panels
will have to improve and produce more energy. 3. The cost of
energy will have to increase.
Actually just one of these factors can happen to a great degree
and the other two stay constant and the point will be reached
where the solar energy industry will explode. But more than
likely, all three will come closer together and at some point
people will decide to start buying the panels in record numbers
and we will see this way of creating energy from a clean and
renewable source be common place.
Here is why I think the time is very near for this explosion to
happen.
1. There is a bill in the state legislature in California now
that will spend on rebates for solar energy. The
governor wants to show that he is in the front of this movement
and wants to be aggressive. Some don’t like the way the bill is
written, but there is a good chance it will pass. Click here for the
article
2. The panels are becoming more and more efficient at producing
more energy.
3. The price may go down dramatically if contracts with China to
produce the panels are put into place. Normally I don’t like our
jobs going oversees to people who only get fractions of what the
US worker makes but in this instance it will also create many
jobs here to install the panels, sell them, warehouse them
etc… Plus this is something the country needs I feel. Clean,
renewable energy that makes us less reliable on foreign oil and
gases.
Also, some companies are producing these new generation flexible
solar energy panels that come in sheets and can be rolled up and
then out onto surfaces. These may bring the cost way down and
make the instalation much more easy and cost efficiant. Here is
an article about this new product: Click Here
At what point will these three variables merge?
I predict in the next two to three years this industry will take
off like so many of us were hoping it would many years ago.
If you want to know how to install a solar electric panel system
to your house here is a inexpensive e-book that shows you how.
Click
Here People can act now, and many already are by buying and
installing these solar panels. With the war on terror looking
like it could last decades many look upon this investment as not
only a clean green solution and a smart investment on increasing
the value of their home, but as almost a patriotic gesture in a
way to free us from the dependence on middle eastern oil and
natural gas. Here is a link to a terrific site where you can get
these panels at wholesale prices. This site has all sorts of
renewable energy sources at great prices.
_________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________-
Tim Phelan
http://www.articlesbase.com/environment-articles/is-it-time-for-solar-energy-to-get-hot-1280.html