I wanted to share a thought with any of you that might be considering Solar. This came from a 2 day solar class I recently took from the Solar Living Institute. Don't bother with Solar until you've done everything else to your house to make it more efficient. If you don't you will need a lot larger solar system. Solar is very expensive so you want as small of a system as you can have. Plus if your house is small like ours there is limited roof space that has the right sun exposure and no shade. Shade is another huge consideration. If a pannel is shaded 20% it will not create any power.
Our PG&E bill was horribly high last month. It was a cold month and I was home from work for two weeks but still it was quite a shock to me. We live in a small house that was built in 1962 and has very little insulation. We (Johnnie's nickname) installed more insulation in the attic this past week - only cost about $350 but will save us a ton over the years. We also took our second refrigerator to the dump and got rid of the old electric space heater he used to heat up the room in the garage. We plan on looking for a more efficient refrigerator in the next few weeks. Our current one ueses up 1000 Kwth per year - not sure what that means dollar wise but I'm sure we can do a lot better. We are considering getting rid of the dryer and just using the clothes line but I like the option of using the dryer but will we use the line????
Speaking of clothes line - last year or was it the year before when I went to home depot to buy it I asked where they kept them and the girl working there had never heard of a clothes line. I couldn't believe it - how spoiled have we become? I ended up buying a retractable one off ebay but to be honest have used it very little. I pledge to use it more this year.
I use wooden drying racks indoors as an alternative to the dryer. I can use them in any weather and they are easy so convenient.
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