Quote:
Originally Posted by PR_Tom
Throw your own solar array into the mix and a few batteries, and you have an overnight or afternoon charger for free. Now you get to calculate both the amount you are saving in electricity from the grid, and the amount of gasoline you'll never burn.
Buying solar by the way is one of the soundest investments there is. For one thing, how many here believe their cost of electricity is never going to go up, ever again? Of course it's going to go up. Buying a bulk of solar for your home LOCKS IN the cost of your electricity to the amount of your initial outlay! It's a 100% guaranteed payoff. You absolutely can not lose money barring a natural disaster. There are not many opportunities out there that can say that.
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Solar simply takes over 20 years to BREAK EVEN ON, NOT GAINING ANYTHING
Guys you keep saying smoke stacks yet a huge portion of our electricity is NUCLEAR. I live a good 50 miles from a nuclear plant and odds are most you do. Unless you're getting raped with inflated california prices electricity is CHEAP. Even running A/C 24/7 last month here my power bill was $50 and I have my quad core on 24/7 and my core 2 also always on. I frequently fall asleep with my projector on which is my primary TV. When I'm on my desktop it had 2 22" LCD's and a few fans keeping the system cool.
BIODIESEL:
You say it competes with food supply BUT the way homebrew works is you get the grease WASTE from like chinese food places and add chemicals and BOOM you end up with diesel fuel for under $1/gallon which is what the guy was referencing. THIS is the way to go if you want to send a FU to the oil companies. The mass produced "bio diesel" isn't much cheaper at the PUMPS than real diesel is.
GAS MILEAGE:
EPA changed their testing just a few years ago, notice the prius went from like 60MPG down to 50? new EPA testing whacked everybody down to more realistic driving conditions. The fact remains though hybrids don't benefit MUCH from freeway driving but if you know how to drive going downhill and staying the same speed you charge the battery and then you eat it up climbing the hill so yes even freeway usage you'll see charge/use
FUEL used in cars
Todays fuels simply run WAY cleaner than the fuels available around 1980. Diesel was really dirty and so was the gas but it sure could drive long distances.
POWER:
all of those cars getting great mileage also have like 50HP engines. Even my civic hybrid has over 100HP, I wouldn't mind dropping even more of the power to get 70MPG.