Have You Switched To “green” Electricity In Your Home, Why Or Why Not?
There are programs that allow you to pay a little more for your electricty that promise that the amount of electricity you use will be produced by a windmill and put back on the grid. You can’t deduct it as a donation, you don’t get a return on the investment, but green makes us feel good. So are you doing this? why or why not?
In Hawaii, where I live, we have something called net metering, so we can sell electricity that we don’t use back to the power company at wholesale prices. I don’t have my meter running backwards yet, but I also don’t pay very much most months. I’m using solar panels for hot water, and a PV array for a good portion of my electricity in the house. We lower our need by never running the air conditioning – we have great trade winds and cross ventilation. We also use all LED, CFL’s, and fluorescent lighting in the house. We have lots of windows so I don’t ever turn on lights until after dark. I’d love to add a windmill, but our association won’t allow us to.
I would do it even if I couldn’t sell any extra back and take the tax deduction.
No, I believe that the true costs of green energy is lower than that of “dirty” energy. We should focus on attributing the full costs to the generation plants so that the prices more accurately reflect the overall cost to society by requiring these organizations to compensate for the damage they are doing to our environment and to pay insurance against unforeseen issues. There should be no need to pay more for green power though perhaps “dirty” power costs should be higher, just letting the taxpayer clean up the mess isn’t good enough.
We’re signed up to a ‘green’ electricity tariff.
It doesn’t cost more and it’s not really doing much to help because of my government’s policies, but it’s an indicator of interest.
According to the UK’s ‘Renewables Obligation’, companies have to produce a certain proportion of electricity renewably anyway. Since fewer people sign up to ‘green tariffs’ than the government demands, our extra demand isn’t going to do anything until more people sign up.
When I get my own home I plan on moving over to Good Energy or Ecotricity, companies that only invest in renewables.
It does a little more than just make us feel good. Green energy has helped CA increase it’s clean energy to almost 20%, we get more of our electricity from renewables than coal. This is helping reduce our air pollution.
So, Yes I signed up for green energy the 1st month it was available from my utility. I now have my own solar panels, helping my state reach 1 million solar roofs goal. My electric bill may always be under $20 per month, but I still pay the minimum $8 for green energy.
im not gona pay more than i have to..your quote “green makes us feel good” tell a lot…hay…pay more if it makes you happy…pay for me too
NO, I opted to use less. No AC this summer and all lighs are now CFL.