Henry Dover answers:

Why are laptops costly, when plastic and wires are available everywhere?
Why are diamonds costly when coal is available everywhere?

Henry Dover answers:

Ever seen the EPA guidelines for handling the new and improved so called Green Light Bulbs ? Its about 5 pages long and contains such passages as if a bulb should accidentally break , immediately air out the premises by opening adjacent doors and outside windows . After 15 minutes the area should be considered safe enough to return for disposal . ————-Sounds like a radiation leak exercise to me.

Henry Dover answers:

Electric cars are getting better when it comes to mileage per hour of recharging. But they still require energy, namely electric energy. Which begs the question “what do you think is the best idea for alternative production of electricity?” Maybe solar generation will be made more efficient over the next decade if both business and government invest enough in the technology.

Hybrids are a good stepping stone. It’s still some gasoline, but at least you get superb mileage and consume less petro.

Hydrogen is a rather stupid idea since it is not only dangerously explosive, but takes more energy to initially produce than it releases when burned. I’m not saying there is no role for hydrogen fuel, just that it can never be a major energy staple.

I think biofuel, especially cellulose ethanol, is the most practical long-term solution to our fuel energy issues. Critics will insist that ethanol doesn’t work, that its production consumes more oil energy than the bio energy we get out of it. But that is only because we use mediocre biofuel crops (such as corn) and we produce it by more primitive means.

Brazil, which uses the “old production” method still gets a strong net energy gain on its sugarcane ethanol, mainly because sugarcane is a better crop for producing “old” ethanol than corn. But the “new” way of producing alcohol from fiber rather than sugar could increase gallons-per-acre yield more than twofold from Brazil’s sugarcane and make ethanol a truly feasible fuel. In temperate climates with distinct winter seasons, switchgrass and hempstalk would be excellent “new” ethanol crops since sugarcane isn’t hardy and the new method produces far more fuel anyway.

Even with alternative fuel we still have to cut down on the total miles that society drives by encouraging more carpooling, mass transit, and opportunities to work/shop closer to home.

Henry Dover answers:

Solar power cannot be harnessed during a storm, on a cloudy day or at night. This limits how much power can be saved for future days. Some days you may still need to rely on oil to power your home.

Henry Dover answers:

Star for you! I 100% agree with you! I was feeling pretty cynical yesterday, when I answered a question about someone wanting to be “green.”

Here’s the link to THAT question:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AknsqPBgXq3M1zHLEFsZx_Pty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20071210194356AAUknPU&show=7#profile-info-AA12157050

For my husband and I, who really DO live very “green” lives, I get pretty tired of the folks who do one little thing, and then think they have saved the earth.

CFL bulbs happen to be one of my big pet peeves right now. I too was suckered into them. When I found they were not holding up to their promises, I did some research, and found they are made in China, use more electricity to produce than they will ever save, of course are shipped over the ocean, are toxic waste, since they have mercury in them, last only about 7 months in my house (vs 3 years for the incandecents!), and certainly not the seven perdicted years, and to top it off, are packaged in plastic clam shells instead of the highly recyclable cardboard of incandecents.

And yet people are trying to pass LAWS that state I MUST use them (here in the U.S.)? Oh please!

No vehicle my husband and I drive is newer than 20 years…not a single one. Some are over 40 years old. The tractors we use are even older than that (1930′s for some).

Our vehicles all did their manufacturing environmental damage more than a generation ago. Every one of them can run on the biofuel we produce right here on our farm. If my husband and I needed or wanted to, we could become nearly totally indepentant of foreign oil. Of course funny enough their are laws that prevent us from driving our biofuel on the roads, so we don’t. Be green! Oh no, wait…it’s illegal to be green!

Shall we talk about the fact that I produce very humanely raised and cared for meat goats, and meat rabbits? It is however totally illegal for me to butcher an animal for our customers, right here in very clean, very sanitary open air, and sunshine outdoors. I can however take my animals to be butchered at a slaughterhouse that processes 400 or more animals an hour and allow my customers to pick the meat up there. Of course I know which is cleaner, and much more humane, but that does not matter…it is still illegal for me to butcher for my customers in environmentally green ways. Thank heavens in my state it is still legal for customers to come to my farm and butcher the animals themselves….I’m sure that loophole will be closed eventually.

I agree with you, that a free market is great. Funny thing is, the greener your lifestyle, the more likely you are to run into laws that make it illegal.

Let’s face it….the Government only wants people to become so independant. If people were suddenly driven to become very independant, living green lives, in a mostly agrarian way, it would drastictly lower the taxes the Government brought in, and there-by lower the amount of power the Government has (just think of it!). No, wait…don’t think…it makes the Government nervous when people turn off the TV and think for themselves.

What really drive me nuts are the hypocrits. People who tell me I’m cruel and heartless for killing and butchering a cute widdle bunny wabbit, or widdle goat I’ve raised….while freely admiting they eat meat! So they will consume the flesh of some animal they have no idea what was fed to it, what drugs were pumped into it, nor how it was treated…yet I’m the cruel one?! Oh please!

I hate the hypocrits who preach living a green life, and yet do not do it themselves, indeed spend time jetting about the world (think Gore). I am really botherd by the new trend of people and companies toward buying “carbon credits.” What a HUGE load of horse pucky! Bloody well clean up your own act, don’t pretend it’s all better, because you purchased carbon credits from someone else who REALLY does live a green lifestyle!

Ok….I think I’m going to stop right there, before I say something I shouldn’t.

Great question!

~Garnet
Homesteading/Farming over 20 years

Henry Dover answers:

Woah…way to much info for a question…so I’m going to write my answer based on JUST the question and not the book of additional information you posted.
My understanding is no, solar power isn’t there yet. However, you could greatly reduce your energy costs by supplementing your home with solar power. How much really depends on where you live. For example, in the arctic Minnesota area where I am from, solar would not be the greatest thing. We get a lot of snow fall in the winter (thus covering the solar panels till they could be cleaned off) and we have some very short days in the winter with a lot of overcast days (thus reducing or eliminating the effectiveness).

I think it would still be a worthwhile investment if you plan to live in the home long enough to allow the solar panels to pay for themselves.

Henry Dover answers:

Hi Alina, unfortunately , the answer is NO. I live off the grid and have for over 16 years now. First of all , you cannot run your air conditioner off solar unless you have about 48 panels and 25 very large batteries. The elect. Range is way out of bounds for solar as well as any elec. Heater. You could however lessen you bill by at least a third or More by switching your main use appliance over to gas. IE> tankless water heater, gas stove, gas heaters and things like that. If you want to learn more, contact me through email, and I would be happy to educate you on solar living. There are also systems called sell back where you have the solar panels, and during the day while they are making elect. You sell it to the power co, and at night you buy from them. Usually cuts your bill by about 90% or more, depending upon your being careful , especially at night.

Henry Dover answers:

Not very practical if you ask me. The way the solar system works in a nutshell. Panels turn sunlight into DC electricity, think the battery in your car. Then an inverter is installed, which turns the DC into AC, which is what is used in your house. The system feeds your needs when the sun is out, and any excess produced during the day turns your meter backward, and at night you draw from your power company. To do for a single outlet, it would work during the day, but at night or if it got cloudy you would have to move the power cord,to the other outlet hooked to your regular power. If you put solar on your house it might make a great selling point, when you show the new potential owners your electricity bills, depending where you live, it could be close to ZERO for the year.

Henry Dover answers:

In theory, yes – on a clear day we get around 1000W per square metre in the UK so a large enough array of solar panels for both electricity and heat, plus a massive storage battery system, could run a house.

In practise, the cost would be astronomical as you have to guarantee sufficient storage capacity to run the house for days at a time during bad weather, and have enough generation capacity to recharge the system quickly as well as running everything.

Most energy efficient buildings use mains electricity and use the grid as the ‘storage’ system; you are paid for power you produce when there is excess, which offsets the cost of electricity when your (small) storage system is depleted.

Re. The underfloor heating: The best system is an integrated air conditioning/heating system using a reversible heat pump setup with an underground ‘heatsink’. You dump excess heat several metres underground from the air conditioning, then pull it back for heating.

You get roughly 3KW of heat transfer for 1KW of power to the heat pump.

Henry Dover answers:

I would not pay someone to inspect it. If the power has been on since you stated. I personally would seal the house “as is” and be very clear about that. Something to the effect of family mother passed away 13 years ago, and you just took legal position of it. Or however you got it. Trust me, there will be major stuff wrong with the house. Possible plumbing as the house was never winterized, water heater, heating and air system possibly. Something that sat that long may also have mold issues seeing that the AC was not on as well. Thats how I would approach it. Otherwise if you pay an inspector your going to probably find out that guessing here an easy 5-8K worth of work would need to be done to it. I would just adjust the price accordingly off the selling price.
I bought a home like that that set for 8 years, and to be honest it was nothing but a nightmare. But I knew it going into the deal. And the price was so cheap that even after dumping 15K I still was way below what I would have had in it if it was turn key IE move in.