Not sure how I got this under manufacturing when I selected other but oh well, either way lets get some good info going here.

Nice thread Shawn! It’s a little over my head with the wind turbine talk though so I won’t be able to comment as much as I’d like to help you support your new thread.

I would LOVE to save money on my electric bills or any other bills for that matter :). I have not thought of any energy saving methods, but I would love to hear suggestions.

Well patrice, I am sure most people are aware of using the compact flourescent lights which I use. Insulation of course and turning the thermostat down. the problem I have is it gets so cold here and my house is so poorly insulated that even with two sweatshirts I have to keep my heat on 70 just to be comfortable. I know i have to insulate, but If I had a cheaper source of heat would be better. I wouldn’t mind a wood stove but getting to the point I’m not as young as i used to be and also too dusty, but get one of them going full blast and you gotta open windows, so insulation doesn’t mean much. But I definitely want some lower cost way to heat. Just seems like every year the rates go up, but the pay doesn’t.

What about supplimenting with a fireplace or space heaters? Those little heaters really warm up a room! My house is poorly insulated also because I’ve got to keep my thermostat at 75 for it to be comfortable to me. I’m always cold though.

Hi,Shawn,
I know that they[Who?]use paper[cardboard] for loft insulation.

I know, have been looking at that but it is an old house and has a lot of drafts have been sealing what I can, but takes a lot of time and cost of everything is through the roof. I wanted to use the expanding foam but wow, would cost a small fortune even to do it myself. I am more concerned now with something low cost to provide extra heat. small heaters are good, but with national grid it still is too costly either for electric or gas(though I have considered the vent free gas heaters) I would rather do something I can burn waste oil, vegetable oil, and other products, which hopefully I can start on this summer. (better half says I gotta get the garage done first though..lol)

I think the microturbine idea is great though, but capstone only has a minimum unit of i believe 25 kilowatt and they cost dearly. I have the means to build my own, just need to pick up as many parts free or as cheap as possible. I can machine and weld so just a matter of getting supplies and time to build a small unit. I think these types of units make a lot of sense though, as even if you use natural gas, you are also generating electricity. In the future you will more likely see smaller distributed power plants rather than great big ones as they are more manageable. so why not have a home generator that supplies heat also? Makes sense to me, though yes we should be looking at solar and wind and other possible sources, but rather than a person having electric and gas provided, of course storms can knock electric lines down, why not generate your own electric at the same time as you are heating? this way you always have eletcric, and say if the gas is off, you could substitute other fuels too. suplement with wind and solar(in our area would not get much but any little bit helps.) and you have a fairly self sufficient source of power.( I am sure the power companies are against this idea)

Interesting, I’ll have to think about this. I live in FL, so I don’t do much thinking about staying warm! I’ve got a good idea for alternative cooling that would be pretty inexpensive and save tons of energy…..thinking of it as a casting call idea.
Also got an idea for a way to build office buildings that would use the construction of the building to create energy…have to have batteries store for later use, but it’s a pretty big idea and I think I need an architect and an engineer and be able to run computer sims to “prove” it works…….add it to the list. :)

One thing they are already working on is using wood to build houses with convection pathways built into them to keep them cool in summer and to help with heat in colder weather, not sure where I saw it perhaps on Planet Green. I think in the future as I said you will see more local energy sources rather than large energy conglomerates. in this way if there is a major blackout like we had a few years ago in the northeast you wont have so much problems as much of that was due to antiquated power system. definitely if you think the idea will work go for it. Many new ideas coming around lately and good ones at that. Australia is working on a large solar tower with a large area of ground covered with a greenhouse type system where the sun heats the air under the glass and it causes an updraft in the tower which then spins a turbine. Now is a good time to get on the bandwagon though. I am thinking of ideas which would benefit low income houses though, so people could either buy a kit and build their own system or even build from locally available resources.

Hi Shawn,
The one thing that helps with heating bills and is low tech is a wood pellet stove. If you time it right you can catch Lowels switching over to their summer stuff and maybe you can buy one for 1/2 price. We did that and the darn thing paid for itself before it got warm enough to turn it off for the summer. Pellets cost less then $300/ton and it takes about 3 ton to heat for the season in an uninsulated house in Maine. No chimney just a vent outside and very little to no smoke. I love the thing.

I thought about that, will look into it. I tried calling the other day but got your voicemail seems we are on different schedules. have to work today and tomorrow 12 hour shifts perhaps monday we can connect as I have some ideas for your concept.