How to use less fossil fuel at home

Putting solar panels on your roof will only take you so far. The trick is finding ways to use more of the electricity in your home and send less of it to the grid where you will likely be charged per kilowatt-hour for your share of upkeep.

It makes little sense to be anti-solar energy in this day and age, although it does make sense to do it right.Even solar can be done wrong. Usurping farmland, forest, or pristine desert tortoise habitats for solar should be against the rules.

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I was motivated to do this post by a rare, cloudless, 50 degree day in the dead of winter.

If you put grid-tied solar panels on your house to eliminate your electric bill, you may one day be billed for use of the grid anyway.Some solar panel owners are already paying about 25% for use of the grid. Thats because, like natural gas and coal, solar panels are essentially a source of energy (fuel) for an electrical grid,which is only one component of the total cost. Power grids are like roads and sewer lines in that we all have to pay our fair share for their use. Im OK paying an extra fee for my electric car which pays no gasoline taxes. Im also OK with temporary government subsidies to test the waters for new technologies.

Some percentage of most electric bills goes to pay the fuel costs at the power plant. In my neck of the woods almost98% of our power comes from hydro (90%), wind (4%), and nuclear (4%), which have no or very low fuel costs. Yet we stillpay roughly 9 cents per kWhfor residential electricity.The average American pays about 12 cents. The difference in cost (12 9 = 3 cents per kWh) is mostly fuel. The other 9 cents is what it costs to get the electricity to you, expand or maintain the grid infrastructure, pay for Federal programs, etc. This means that someone who offsets all of their electricity use with grid tied solar panels might one day, in theory, end up paying something like 75% of their original electricity bill (12 cents 3 cents for fuel costs = 9 cents = 75% of 12 cents).

However, if your highest priority is to use less fossil fuels (willing to spend more to accomplish that), then volunteering to pay more for your electricity isnt necessarily a bad thing, in fact, one could argue that its a noble thing. If wind, solar, and nuclear really do cost more than fossil fuels, maybe paying a little extra to get rid of fossil fuels isnt a bad idea.

One method to reduce the various monthly grid use charges beginning to show up on electric bills by owners of grid-tied solar panels (who are essentially very small power companies) is to find ways to use more of the electricity in your own home (send less of it to the grid where you will likely be charged per kWh for your share of upkeep).

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How to use less fossil fuel at home