Most sustainable U.S. Community?

What may be the most sustainable community in the United States was launched on the campus of U.C. Davis in California.  West Village at U.C. Davis is a zero net energy community; meaning that all the energy needs of the community are met without having to rely on the electrical grid.  They accomplish this by … continue reading

Solar Powered Air Conditioning

We’ve written many times on solar PV electricity, the most common form of homeowner solar.  We’ve also written about solar thermal hot water heating.  But another method for utilizing solar to reduce your energy bill is solar powered air conditioning!

Solar powered air conditioning works on the absorption cycle. From wikipedia on absorption refrigerator:

An … continue reading

Newsflash to CNN: your energy poll is a joke!

I was waiting in line at the store this evening and I was scrolling through some energy news stories on CNN on my phone.  I saw the poll question at the bottom of the page and I’m curious as to who is creating the questions over there?  I don’t think this is supposed to be … continue reading

Residential Solar Financing Options

Crack open the bank!

When I googled “solar financing” I thought I hit the jackpot when I found this PDF “The Borrower’s Guide to Financing Solar Energy Systems” prepared by NREL.   When I opened it up, I looked for a date when it released, but didn’t find the date until skimming through all the pages.  … continue reading

Cheap DIY Solar at $0.09 per watt!

The following post was written by Eric Sandeen and can be seen on his blog here.

There are a lot of silly DIY solar scams out there, but here’s the real deal.

Consider:

An average electric dryer run uses about 3.3 kWh of electricty
An average home might run 150 dryer loads per year
This equates to roughly 500 kWh … continue reading

Obama and Energy Security - Are We Up to the Challenge?

Obama on Energy Independence

Today, President Barack Obama spoke to the students at Georgetown University to challenge the next generation to meet the challenge of reducing our dependence on oil.  He put forth a plan to reduce our daily import of foreign oil by a third by 2020 by:

Increasing our … continue reading

Groupon and One Block Off the Grid Solar deal!

I like Groupon. I think the concept is great and I’ve purchased a few items from them over the past 2 years.  But lately I’ve been a little annoyed that it seems the only Groupon customers are people interested in facials, pedicures and massages.  So I was pleasantly surprised last night when I … continue reading

Residential Clean Energy: Solar vs. Wind

If you’re a homeowner interested in creating your own clean energy, chances are you are considering installing a solar pv array or a wind turbine.  Which is the better option?  Luckily Spokesman-Review did a story on Inland Power and Light in Spokane, WA and their efforts to see which is better for residential power generation … continue reading