Alternative Energy - Off Grid Electricity

Electricity Bill Sticker Shock

DV — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 01:32:53 +0000

Well, I thought the last bill was bad as it was over $200.00, but this recent one topped it easily! Has anyone else gotten a $371.00 electric bill this month? Talk about an “electric shock”! My wife about came unglued when she opened our latest bill from Stream Energy. We are locked in for a year at 11.9 cents per kilowatt hour. According to the bill, we somehow managed to use 3009 KWH in the last billing cycle. I just don’t get it. We have done nothing different from last year (except we are paying about half a cent more this year over last year). Even with all the days we were over the 100 degree mark, I still can’t see how we used that much power. We keep the air conditioning at 78 (occasionally, I sneak it down to 77 but that only lasts until the wife catches it). We also keep ceiling fans running throughout the house just like we did the same time last year. Yet, we used roughly 683 KWH more than we did last year. Obviously, I need to do some kind of energy audit on our house and figure out where the extra power is going. Time to do more research! If anyone has any public service type links they can share, please pass them along with any advice you can provide relative to experience implementing energy saving tips. Meanwhile, I did manage to bury a decent ground for my RF harvesting experiments in the wife’s rose bed while she was out shopping. Now I just need to get a bus bar connected to it in the garage. Never enough hours in a day. – DV

Wind Generators & Wind Farms Have Made Progress – Where Is T. Boone Pickens Headed Next?

DV — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 04:40:55 +0000

It was roughly a year ago that T. Boone Pickens launched a campaign aimed at weaning America off of foreign oil imports. Like many others with fewer resources, it seemed his plan focused much on renewable energy. More specifically wind power generation. These days it seems like you would be hard pressed to find west Texas cap rock that did not have those giant windmills planted atop of them much like an orchard of massive wind driven electric generators.

But what now? The rumor in the wind is that he is moving on to bigger and better plans (perhaps focusing on Natural Gas?). What will this mean to the renewable energy sector? We have our thoughts, but would like to hear yours on the matter.

- OffGridElectric.com

P.S. An insightful piece on the topic can also be found at Electricity In The Wind

Solar Power Generation

DV — Fri, 01 May 2009 17:33:12 +0000

With the advances in solar cell technology and more efficient production methods, it is becoming easier and more affordable every day to build your own solar panels and create solar arrays. Nowadays, even the tax man is involved with implementing alternative energy solutions at the residential and commercial levels. There are state and federal programs out there that allow tax breaks and incentives to lesson the burden on the electric grid. In this section of the blog we will focus on experimentation and development of solar energy systems to lower your current electricity consumption from the grid, find available opportunities to “sell” electricity back into the grid, or eliminate your need for being attached to the electricity grid completely.
- OffGridElectric.com

RF Harvesting – Electricity is all around us, we just need to grab it (safely).

DV — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 12:47:27 +0000

Harvesting RF Energy to supply our electricity can be done, and has been done in the past. We only need to work together and chart the course for today and the future. Remember; “Thinking within the box is best left to those content with mediocrity.”

Welcome To The OffGridElectric.com Blog!

DV — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 12:31:05 +0000

It’s alive! Yes, we are still doing some testing, linking, and tweaking, but the OffGridElectric.com Blog is up and running! So let’s get busy making this world a better, cleaner, healthier place to live using alternative and renewable energy. For the time being, we still need those old fossil fuels, but change is already smacking us right between the eyes! The registration link is functional, so please register so you can post comments in your area of interest. Authors note: It is HOT in Texas! Someone we know just got a $233.00 electric bill in the mail the other day for the month of June. Yep! Need to get busy!

Best Regards,
- OffGridElectric.com Web 2.0 Development Team