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Wealth Creation and Energy
In the current long dark tunnel of depressing economic news, As a native San Diegan for 46 years, I am the most optimistic today for our future. The day when you are able to power your home or your business, and power your car affordably and reliably by the energy of the sun's rays is here. A power plant for each building, a personal “gas station” for each car, and perhaps most importantly, wealth creation for the family is now possible. The day is here. A wonderful recipe of technological advancements, civic will, political leadership, and innovative new tools have emerged that will allow us to achieve energy independence and wealth creation on an unprecedented scale. I write this to plead with you not to let this day, this opportunity, pass us by and to share with you our experience building and living at Herons’ House.
Our
home was constructed in 2006 in Herons' House consumes less than 1/10th the amount of energy of a typical 2500 sq ft. home. In 2008, our electricity bill totaled $258 for the year including the energy generated by the house, to drive a city electric car 2900 miles. (saving $400 in gas) In 2007, our electricity bill totaled $4,309 for the year. A total of $22,000 was spent on a combination of energy saving devices such as CFL’s and a 4 kw solar P.V. generating plant to accomplish this 93% energy savings. Our gas bill is equally low due to a thick frame with more than double the normal insulation, south facing concrete and block passive solar heating, and hyper efficient windows and appliances such as a tankless water heater and 3 zone heating system. With the gas savings of the electric car offsetting our total utility bill, Herons House is a true zero energy home. A side story to this is we enlisted our son Jake to help in the energy savings effort by offering him 10% of the total savings if he would assist us by being a miser and a watchdog for wasted energy. Yesterday was the end of the year, I wrote Jake a check for $435. That's wealth creation for Jake! WOW! With the coupling of increased efficiency and solar generation, our total payback time for our investment at Herons’ House is 4.7 years, using the same monthly payments that we would have been paying to our utility. After the payoff, the next ten years will result in a savings of over $100,000 compared to rates we would have paid to the utility, and over the next 30 years its a $1,000,000. That is wealth creation. My parents have lived in the same San Diego home for 45 years, if they had the ability as we do today, to eliminate their electric bill in the first year, the savings for them during the 45 years, would have been greater than the price they paid for their home including the cost of their 30 year mortgage with interest. Another way of saying this is the electric energy cost to power your home during its life, is more than the purchase price of the home including interest. Julie and I are fortunate, we plan on living here the rest of our lives and we could afford to purchase the systems necessary to achieve the 93% energy savings. For many the life situation is different and this makes solar financing problematic. There is a much better way. Financing solar on buildings that don’t move rather than on people that do, is the “golden key” to energy independence. Individuals and families may move every few years, have kids in college to pay for, may not want to use their credit for solar or perhaps can’t qualify for a good rate. An apartment or condo renter is not going to invest in solar as they don’t own the building. This prevents alternative energy from being a realistic choice for most property owners or renters. When we shift the financing to the building through property taxes, every occupant of that building over the life of the building (hopefully a 100 years or more) will enjoy enormous savings. In most cases, combined with minimal efforts at conservation, property tax financing over twenty years is a net savings from day one compared to the existing utility bill, and then the savings grow exponentially thereafter. That is wealth creation. San Diegans should vigorously and vocally
support the No one owns the sun or the wind. It can’t be taxed, fee’d, levied, appropriated, tarriffed copywrited or whatever scheme is used. You as a creature of the earth, have every right to use the power of the sun and wind free from taxation or profit, forever. I applaud the County for their energy
leadership. This effort coupled with technology advancements will
bring a new era of energy independence, energy jobs, a green
economy, and wealth creation to Happy New Year, I am the most optimistic today for Peder |