Our two grass seed mixers run 3-phase 5hp motors and our two packaging machines run 2.5hp motors, that are all decades old. One is easily 30. During their respective busy seasons the mixers run about 4 hrs./day and the packaging machines about 7.5 hrs./day, both with less frequent use the rest of the year.

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1980 300TD-China Blue/Blue MBTex-2nd Owner, 107K (Alt Blau) OBK #15
'06 Chevy Tahoe Z71 (for the wife & 4 kids, current mule) '03 Honda Odyssey (son #1's ride, reluctantly) '99 GMC Suburban (255K+ miles, semi-retired mule) 21' SeaRay Seville (summer escape pod)

Tax them. Over relianance on foreign energy has become a national security issue for the US, not just an economic issue.

Yes I can imagine how much power those would drain. It was fun back when we still had the old rotary dial electric meters. I used to sit and watch how much faster it would turn every time my father would fired up the table saw

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1982 300GD Carmine Red (DB3535) Cabriolet Parting Out
1990 300SEL Smoke Silver (Parting out)
1991 350SDL Blackberry Metallic (481)

"The thing is Bob, its not that I'm lazy...its that I just don't care."

That is the question, isn't it? How long will it take to pay for itself? You need to calculate also the interest for the investment as though you took out a bank loan. After all, that money would earn interest in your bank at the very least. Say you peg it at current rates, where is the difficulty? If you do that, you can say "At current rates, the item and what not will pay for itself in X years.".

Say I spend $10000 to change my windows. What would it cost me as a home improvement loan by the time it is said and done? Well, how much, AT CURRENT RATES will this set of windows save me? Say $2000 a year in heating. At the very least, it will cost me 5 years of interest. Calculate from there.

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01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow
04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow

Yup, the problem is that you can't do the calculation if energy costs aren't predictable. As it is, these cost can vary by about 50 percent in one year. The problem is multiplied if you are looking at a large investment for "alternate" power (i.e., spending 10s of millions to develop a wind farm).

First, it should be dated 5/10/11.

'09-'10 was when the conversion took place so there was some oil use as well as natural gas. We used up all of the fuel in the tank while they tested the gas units so that we always had a heat source.

Obviously, it's tough to nail down a moving target. But bottom line, we'll spend about $12K on gas by the time we shut the furnaces down for the season which is a saving of $28K+ over the last full year of oil heat in '08-'09 and a savings of $33K+ over the '07-'09 average. We're on pace for a 2.3 year ROI for the complete project cost which included the old oil tank removal. Before we started we were hoping <5 years. And there is some room for efficiency improvement with window and overhead door replacement.

If you're a business owner, don't overlook your energy and heating expenses when looking to bolster your bottom line. That savings almost covered the cost of an employee (well, without benefits).

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1980 300TD-China Blue/Blue MBTex-2nd Owner, 107K (Alt Blau) OBK #15
'06 Chevy Tahoe Z71 (for the wife & 4 kids, current mule) '03 Honda Odyssey (son #1's ride, reluctantly) '99 GMC Suburban (255K+ miles, semi-retired mule) 21' SeaRay Seville (summer escape pod)

Solar tubes can work exeptionally well in certain applications. My father in law just installed some in his house and in a couple of instances no longer needs to turn on a lights in rooms. Of course he's in Tucson. Your mileage may vary depending on locatoin and weather.

- Peter.

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2021 Chevrolet Spark
Formerly...
2000 GMC Sonoma
1981 240D 4spd stick. 347000 miles. Deceased Feb 14 2021
2002 Kia Rio. Worst crap on four wheels
1981 240D 4spd stick. 389000 miles.
1984 123 200
1979 116 280S
1972 Cadillac Sedan DeVille
1971 108 280S

If you want the electricity supply to decrease - the EPA is on that like white on rice =)

I think its call 'clean air transport' rules are about to shut down a number of older coal-fired powerplants (or, at least make them economically unfeasable to run) in the next few years.

Nobody's house is gonna go dark because of this, but it will take away some of our excess generating capacity.

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2009 Kia Sedona
2009 Honda Odyssey EX-L
12006 Jetta Pumpe Duse
(insert Mercedes here)

Husband, Father, sometimes friend =)

I'm still thinking they may be a viable option for us since we're only open during daylight hours. The lights would theoretically only be needed on rainy/snowy/cloudy days and around 4:00 during the winter. We do have some skylights but because of the greenhouse effect in the summer we end up covering them. The tubes do minimize that.

We haven't completely given up on solar electricity yet. Due to our proximity to Hartford, we don't qualify for many of the programs available (they're based on population density and we're considered Greater Hartford even though our pop. is <26,000). We did have a consultant come out last week to take some measurements and he is going to come up with a plan for us.

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1980 300TD-China Blue/Blue MBTex-2nd Owner, 107K (Alt Blau) OBK #15
'06 Chevy Tahoe Z71 (for the wife & 4 kids, current mule) '03 Honda Odyssey (son #1's ride, reluctantly) '99 GMC Suburban (255K+ miles, semi-retired mule) 21' SeaRay Seville (summer escape pod)