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[inahandbasket]

I'm a bit of a green energy freak, I've tried to keep it quiet though. (What would the neighbors think?) I suspect that since we own our own place and I now have the ability to affect such changes, I'll be a lot less quiet on that front in the future, just fyi. If you want to opt-out of such lefty communist rantings just let me know and I'll make a filter for it.

I just signed up for NStar electric and gas service at the new house (!) and noticed that they have a full 100% wind power option available for only 1.5 cents per kwh over their standard service. ($.14/kwh instead of $.125). Total no brainer in my mind.
If you're an NStar customer with an account in good standing you can have them switch you over to full wind power. Clicky.

Step one towards full eco-friendly housing complete.
(And in 4 years when our water heater needs replacing we're totally getting an on-demand heater, but that'll be another post.)

Comments

[dreams-of-wings.livejournal.com]

Hi hi!
I added you as a friend, just FYI. :)

Isn't the wind-power thing cool? One of these days I want to live in a house with a geo-thermal heating system.

[inahandbasket]

Yup yup, added you back.

That'd be super neato, my parents almost installed one about 10 years ago but didn't due to some technical rural snafus. The technology has matured a lot since then though, someone the other day (Rowan?) was mentioning that they could cool their entire house just with the ground area under the sidewalk out front.

[squidproquo.livejournal.com]

I'm totally a green energy freak as well, but don't know much more than the general concept of geothermal. Question: if you're using the temp differential to cool your house, don't you end up heating the soil? By how much? I've read about the effects of global warming temp rises on soil/microbe/plant communities, and of course if the ground in question is under a sidewalk the impact would be minimal, but I'm curious...

BTW I'm TOTALLY doing that NStar thing--thank you for posting about it since I never read the extras they put in with my statement.

[inahandbasket]

wikipedia's got a good article on it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_exchange_heat_pump
The best way is to drill straight down about 200ft, that way you're barely affecting anything eco-wise. It's a bit more expensive to do it that way though. ^_^