09-15-2013, 07:54 AM
quote:
Originally posted by micro
Thank you all. Our plan is to stay on the grid, so I'm not clear why we can't use an electric stove. Our big energy consumers are the dryer, stove/oven, hot water and a small air conditioner.
Any suggested websites to learn more about this?
We have a small outdoor (lanai) kitchen that is 100% propane and we do all our baking in the small oven (for example: http://www.amazon.com/Camp-Chef-Camping-Outdoor-Burner/dp/B0013LLSZG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1379281659&sr=8-1&keywords=camp+chef+oven ) Not only does it use very little fuel, it doesn't heat up our house.
We dry our clothes on a line. In Puna your line will have under a cover. Again, our lanai suffices.
Our water is heated by solar.
Essentially we use VERY little 220. We have LED or fluorescent lights. Our biggest electricity usage is probably our fridge/freezer. Not much we can do about that. We use ceiling fans only when it's really needed. We have a solar attic fan that helps to keep the house cool. Our Helco bill is usually around $110/month. At that rate, PV doesn't (yet) make any sense. Our daughter is going off to college soon and our elec usage will go down to what... $80/month? (If I had a nickel for every minute she spent standing in front of the open refrigerator door, hoping that the contents had changed from the last time....) That is only $60 above the grid-tie fee Helco charges. I can't imagine going PV would ever "pay off" under current technology in our scenario.