I would love to have solar panels! If I could afford them, I would already be using them. There is no reason we should not be harnessing the power of the sun.
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29
What green item is on top of your wish list?
Started by fancyfingers, Feb 03 2012 06:46 PM
74 replies to this topic
#23
Posted 03 April 2012 - 01:53 PM
We have talked about planting a garden for years now. We used to have one 22 years ago at our old house. We will be putting in a garden this year finally. I am looking forward to eating and juicing some fruit and vegetables. I love fresh fruit and fresh vegetables right out of a garden.
#24
Posted 04 April 2012 - 09:36 AM
4leafclover, on 01 April 2012 - 09:36 AM, said:
EVERYTHING THAT IS SOLAR-POWERED! I think it's best to have stuffs running through solar energy so I won't have to spend for electricity. It'll definitely cut my monthly expenditures, save electricity and save mother earth! :)
How about Solar Powered Landscape Lights and Solar Powered Toys?
#25
Posted 10 April 2012 - 01:48 PM
fancyfingers, on 03 February 2012 - 06:46 PM, said:
I have made a wish list of the green items I want to incorporate into my family's every day life. Solar panels on the roof, a fence that doubles as a solar water heater, and a portable solar panel (like the kind the military use), planting a garden, to name a few.
What items are on the top of your green list?
What items are on the top of your green list?
#27
Posted 10 April 2012 - 03:26 PM
Wow, I feel so lucky after reading every ones posts. We installed solar on our house almost 8 years ago now. It was not quite enough to power everything in the house, our A/C still runs off the grid but with reverse metering we are able to offset a lot of the cost. We have been slowly changing our CFL’s to LED’s; they really do make a huge difference because four 60 watt incandescent generate enough heat to need 1 ton of AC to offset.
Likewise we have a large raised bed garden, living in south Florida we are able to grow year round. Using our large compost tumbler we are able to avoid fertilizers and just use compost (brown gold), we also do not use pesticides but use green substitutes (garlic, hot peppers, tobacco and dish soap) all put in a stocking and left in hot water overnight, then spray- gets the bugs to move on cause nothing tastes good anymore to them.
Anyway back to the wish list- my fuel cell car, I am on three different waiting lists for 2015 for the Honda Clarity, Chevy Equinox FCV, or Toyota Advanced Fuel Cell SUV, I really want the Honda because it has the ability to use our solar to fuel the car from home, the only issue is that it only has about a 250 mile range where as the others are closer to 400 miles, but honestly whoever gets to the south Florida market first will get the sale.
The other big one is a fuel cell from Clear Edge Power, they are available in California now but not anywhere else, we have natural gas here at the house, the fuel cell runs off the natural gas and is 11 times more energy than our solar, so we could finally meet our goal of being totally energy positive and selling 30% back to the grid. We have been to their factory in Oregon, met with their people and begged for a unit, right now they are only selling in California, nuts.
Lastly I want a cistern for the house, we have covered rain barrels for the garden and with those we can water all the garden about twice a week, if we get ¼ inch of rain every week, so about 1/3 the time right now. I want a cistern so we can catch our rain water for all our water use. We have already identified a reverse osmosis UV light system to purify the water, the hold up is the cost and permitting, reason is the water table is very shallow here, which is great for our well, but not good for underground tanks. I want the 2500 gallon but for right now its on hold.
I know it sounds like we are very spoiled and honestly we are, but when we installed the solar there were no incentives here, so it took almost five years to save up enough for it, I would love to change over to the more powerful and efficient type but until we get some help beyond the federal 30% rebate from the state I will hold off.
Thing is for you guys that want solar it is possible, cost today are literally 60% cheaper than when we did it 8 years ago,( we have a 20 Kw system, if you live in a state that offers rebates or incentives they are usually 20% add that to the 30% from the federal government and you get them for basically half price. Thing is without some overproduction to sell back they take 10 years to pay off, get a 30% overproduction and that drops to four on average.
Likewise we have a large raised bed garden, living in south Florida we are able to grow year round. Using our large compost tumbler we are able to avoid fertilizers and just use compost (brown gold), we also do not use pesticides but use green substitutes (garlic, hot peppers, tobacco and dish soap) all put in a stocking and left in hot water overnight, then spray- gets the bugs to move on cause nothing tastes good anymore to them.
Anyway back to the wish list- my fuel cell car, I am on three different waiting lists for 2015 for the Honda Clarity, Chevy Equinox FCV, or Toyota Advanced Fuel Cell SUV, I really want the Honda because it has the ability to use our solar to fuel the car from home, the only issue is that it only has about a 250 mile range where as the others are closer to 400 miles, but honestly whoever gets to the south Florida market first will get the sale.
The other big one is a fuel cell from Clear Edge Power, they are available in California now but not anywhere else, we have natural gas here at the house, the fuel cell runs off the natural gas and is 11 times more energy than our solar, so we could finally meet our goal of being totally energy positive and selling 30% back to the grid. We have been to their factory in Oregon, met with their people and begged for a unit, right now they are only selling in California, nuts.
Lastly I want a cistern for the house, we have covered rain barrels for the garden and with those we can water all the garden about twice a week, if we get ¼ inch of rain every week, so about 1/3 the time right now. I want a cistern so we can catch our rain water for all our water use. We have already identified a reverse osmosis UV light system to purify the water, the hold up is the cost and permitting, reason is the water table is very shallow here, which is great for our well, but not good for underground tanks. I want the 2500 gallon but for right now its on hold.
I know it sounds like we are very spoiled and honestly we are, but when we installed the solar there were no incentives here, so it took almost five years to save up enough for it, I would love to change over to the more powerful and efficient type but until we get some help beyond the federal 30% rebate from the state I will hold off.
Thing is for you guys that want solar it is possible, cost today are literally 60% cheaper than when we did it 8 years ago,( we have a 20 Kw system, if you live in a state that offers rebates or incentives they are usually 20% add that to the 30% from the federal government and you get them for basically half price. Thing is without some overproduction to sell back they take 10 years to pay off, get a 30% overproduction and that drops to four on average.
#28
Posted 10 April 2012 - 07:02 PM
E3 wise, on 10 April 2012 - 03:26 PM, said:
Likewise we have a large raised bed garden, living in south Florida we are able to grow year round. Using our large compost tumbler we are able to avoid fertilizers and just use compost (brown gold), we also do not use pesticides but use green substitutes (garlic, hot peppers, tobacco and dish soap) all put in a stocking and left in hot water overnight, then spray- gets the bugs to move on cause nothing tastes good anymore to them.
Getting off the subject a bit here - what ratios do you use for your pest mix? That sounds easy to do and I'd like to try it. Planter boxes that hang on my balcony railing are at the very top of my green list right now. I'm ready to plant!
#29
Posted 11 April 2012 - 02:58 AM
I desperately want to own a Big Berkey water filter. Those things can even take fluoride out of the water (with a special attachment). They are supposed to be the best water filters you can buy, but they cost about $300 so I guess I'll be waiting a while on one!
My husband said he saw someone demonstrate in a video how the Berkey's can even take the color out of diesel fuel.
My husband said he saw someone demonstrate in a video how the Berkey's can even take the color out of diesel fuel.
#30
Posted 11 April 2012 - 03:14 AM
Anna T, on 11 April 2012 - 02:58 AM, said:
I desperately want to own a Big Berkey water filter. Those things can even take fluoride out of the water (with a special attachment). They are supposed to be the best water filters you can buy, but they cost about $300 so I guess I'll be waiting a while on one!
My husband said he saw someone demonstrate in a video how the Berkey's can even take the color out of diesel fuel.
My husband said he saw someone demonstrate in a video how the Berkey's can even take the color out of diesel fuel.
#31
Posted 11 April 2012 - 03:22 AM
Shortpoet-GTD, on 11 April 2012 - 03:14 AM, said:
In the meantime, stand alone water filters can be had for about $30.00
Yeah, we do have a sink-mounted filter and it works OK even though it is one of the cheaper models. That will just have to do for now. I guess the Berkey is more of an extravagant "want" rather than an actual "need" :)
#32
Posted 12 April 2012 - 02:04 PM
Where can I start? We definitely need 3 more solar panels and a bigger bank of storage batteries. Our system is very small but mostly adequate for our needs. When the sun is not shining , we do need to crank up the petrol generator to use our internet. Not very Green but we do use the washing machine on the generator at the same time.
#33
Posted 12 April 2012 - 06:02 PM
I'm just starting on my next stage of going green so I would just love to have new solar panels for now to start me off. I would eventually want to reconstruct my whole house to start becoming fully self sustaining too. Another item I would love to have is a hybrid car, but I will have to wait a while because they are just too expensive for me to afford right now.
#34
Posted 15 April 2012 - 04:38 PM
Some solar panels and a generator would be great for our house, too. That's something we'd love, but not at all in the budget right now. The generator will likely come before the solar panels, but even it may be a year or so off.
#35
Posted 17 April 2012 - 08:05 PM
I would love to get geothermal heating for our house! We have too many trees and live in a valley, so solar panels won't help us at all, unfortunately. Also, I am trying to eliminate plastics from our daily life. I would love to toss my entire stack of tupperware containers and get more stainless steel and glass.
#36
Posted 16 May 2012 - 02:47 PM
I would like to have rain barrel containers used for watering the garden, flushing the toilets. Gray water from the clothes and dish washers is on my wish list along with a green house for my plants and solar panels to reduce the amount of electricity used.
#37
Posted 18 May 2012 - 02:54 PM
Pat, on 16 May 2012 - 02:47 PM, said:
I would like to have rain barrel containers used for watering the garden.
Square ones that sit flush against the house are available too.
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