Goin' off the grid

Some perspective from the energy (nearly) self-sufficient:

Penny was musing on all this experimentation and how easy it really is to come up with hyperefficient refrigeration. “Why doesn’t everyone do this?” she asked. My response: If we were grid-connected, a kilowatt-hour of electricity (approximately what we’re saving every day if we go without a freezer) would cost us about 9 cents. That’s how much we’d be spending every day. Nine freakin’ cents. That and about three bucks will buy you a cup of coffee.

I don’t mean to sound cynical. But it does drive home just how cheap electricity is, and why it’s really hard to get people to conserve.

There's a huge difference between those with an eco-fetish ("tree huggers") and those who are trying to be good stewards of resources and plan for the future. Electricity may be cheap today, but that doesn't imply a perpetual promise, as recent rises in oil prices confirm. When I look at the casual waste of energy today, I often wonder how long it will be before the lights start to go out, and people wish they'd used some of that cheap power to put into place tomorrow's energy infrastructure, whether solar, wind, thermal, or something else. It's going to be a lot harder to convert when we hit the wall, and the only plentiful supply of energy is human and animal muscle. Learn about alternatives. Conserve. And plan ahead.