Going Off Grid with Chris Anderson and Borrego Solar

<p>This is a good thing, But I can offer you a&nbsp;free solar system installed on you property and our company powers the electric meter backwards and bills the electric provider. The Home owner gets free electric under a 25 year contract.</p><p>The only cost is we ask for a $ 500.00 deposit.&nbsp;Most power companies charge that but with this company you get that $ 500.00 back in time.</p><p>Email me if you are interested <a href="mailto:larmelton3@aol.com" target="_blank">larmelton3@aol.com</a></p><p>Larry&nbsp;</p>

Bravo! The future is here. I remeber reading Popluar Science 20 years ago about homes like this and dreaming about their development. Every day more and more of my dreams are coming true.

<p>Hello:&nbsp; Note that this off grid home was built for $170 per square foot.&nbsp; Housing in California is more like $250 per foot for typical construction.&nbsp; It's nice to see that being efficient doesn't hove to cost more to build and likely costs less to live in. </p><p>&nbsp;The off grid home I built and live in also was less than the norm to build, but did need a lot of design time. A metric I like to describe energy use is: BTU per suqare foot of living space per year --- of imported or fossil energy.&nbsp; I get by on 12000 BTU/ft/year.</p><p>Now, if Habitat for Humanity started building off grid... !</p><p>&nbsp;Yours,&nbsp; Larry&nbsp;</p>

<p>Gunther Beck,</p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Living in the USA, I never see any single-glazed windows for sale or put into houses.&nbsp; Even in the cheapest houses, the windows are double glazed.</p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Perhaps the reason it gets mentioned is that many older homes (like mine from the 1950's) still have single glazed windows plus storm windows.</p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; On the other hand, it still seems common to have only 4&quot; of fiberglass insulation in walls.&nbsp; I hope Europe puts in more insulation than that and I hope the USA changes this to 6 or 8&quot; standard.&nbsp; </p><p>Thanks</p><p>John C. Briggs&nbsp;</p>

<p>I think this is great that a coo can aford a system like this, Now I hope he takes it one step further and makes the system so inexpensive that middle to lower class people can afford it.&nbsp; Salaries are not going up any more in the area of the country that I live, so it has to be inexpensive.</p><p>Alternatively, maybe he can get some one to lobby congress for more money for the government to help fund this for lower and middle income people.&nbsp; I'm not asking for a free product, but this technology is something that really could make&nbsp;our lives better.</p>

<p>Bravo every time someone walks the talk.&nbsp; </p><p>Chris isn't just in the &quot;green&quot; business to turn a profit, it is a way of life and he&nbsp;put his&nbsp;money where his&nbsp;mouth is.&nbsp; This&nbsp;type of action&nbsp;should simply be applauded as&nbsp;the standard not the exception.</p><p>&nbsp;I look forward to seeing more&nbsp;smart building.</p>

<p>I'm certain that as a European you ARE shocked. Any sensible person would be.</p><p>Does that imply that Americans are not sensible and Europeans are by default sensible? I'll let that up to others to decide.</p><p>I must say though that if one were to visit a country and at every turn observed&nbsp; vehicles traveling down the highway with steady streams of gasoline flowing from holes in the fuel tank,while sporting bumper stickers that proclaimed that we must urgently do something about the price of gasoline,you would correct in assuming that all citizens of this particular country were either mad as hatters or were so uneducated that they barely registered double digit IQ's. From everthing I observe on a daily basis ,concerning energy waste in transportation, heating and cooling of buildings, we are living in an asylum without bars. How sad </p>

Fine project. But as a European I am always shocked, when such a list includes thermal glazed windows. In most of Europe this is standard, to me it sounds like mentioning the roof or the entry door as some &quot;special extra&quot;.&nbsp; Embarrassing for&nbsp; a country like the US!

Sounds easy enough.&nbsp; All you need is $510,000 and land to put the house on.

Is there an economical windmill that can be put on the top of a house?&nbsp; WInd speed average is about 13 mph in my town, and I'm on top of a hill so it might be a little higher.&nbsp;

<p>Does anyone know, if it's possible to go off-grid in a townhome? Is an average townhome roof size large enough (are any solar systems efficient enough?) to collect enough energy to power the home?</p><p>Thanks for any information or pointing me in the direction, where I can find out more. </p>

Yes, Mr. Melton, you can offer a free solar system, but you can't make good on the offer. By now, CitizenRe has been pretty well debunked as multi-level marketing vaporware. There's no evidence of the promised product, the promised manufacturing plant, or the promised funding. Please refrain from making claims that ultimately hinder the&nbsp;responsible growth of renewables.

<p>&quot; I look forward to seeing more&nbsp;smart building.&quot;</p><p>Since when is 3000 sq ft &quot;smart building&quot;?? A smaller building would mean smaller investments in green energy. Sustainability is not about putting lipstick on pigs. It is about less is more. When will we figure that out?</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Todd</p><p>P.S. &quot; Is there an economical windmill that can be put on the top of a house?&quot;</p><p>Wind generators to not go on house rooftops.</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;This is simply promotion of his company</p><p>&nbsp; Off grid living in the east coast in winter in not reality for most folks</p><p>&nbsp; Nice adverstisement disguised as a real project though</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>3000 sf is fairly small for a COO's house that contains office and art studio as well as living quarters.&nbsp; Americans won't switch to renewable living if they see it as a joyless nuts-and-twigs experience.&nbsp; Neither will they respond well to being forced into hair shirts.</p><p>As for wind generators:&nbsp; Google &quot;micro wind generators&quot; and see what's available.&nbsp; Here's some micro wind turbines that can indeed be placed on a rooftop; they won't generate enough to power a typical American home, but they're cheaper than solar panels -- perhaps you could use these to lower your electric bills and use the savings to eventually get solar panels as well:&nbsp; http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/03/21/micro-wind-turbines-small-size-big-impact/ &nbsp; </p>

It looks like a great project!&nbsp; I'm curious what the true cost of the home was?&nbsp; I'm assuming that the COO of a RE&nbsp;company got his solar cells and other related items for free or at a reduced cost?&nbsp; How much would actually be spent on the products providing energy independence by a person off the street?&nbsp;&nbsp;An actual breakdown of cost would be nice so one could plan such expenditures for a similar project.

I work in the estimating department of an A/E firm specializing in RE projects; we regularly 'green-up' house plans and typically find that an 'off-grid' approach is by far the most costly option with an average $/SF range in the $275 range for new construction.&nbsp; I would assume then that a home of 3000SF would cost in excess of $800,000.00 including builder's O &amp; P, excluding the cost of land. If you want green you need to have the green to start with, no doubt about it.&nbsp;

<p>Mr. Weingarten,</p><p>Funny you should mention 'off grid' and Habitat For Humanity.</p><p><a href="http://www.sustainablehomemag.com/CDA/Archives/BNP_GUID_9-5-2006_A_10000000000000097390" target="_blank">http://www.sustainablehomemag.com/CDA/Archives/BNP_GUID_9-5-2006_A_10000000000000097390</a></p><p>Granted, it's not totally off the grid, but it's moving toward the edge!</p><p>There's been other efforts by HFH, but the main idea was to keep utility costs down for the homeowners. Such efforts are worth our support.</p>

<p>Mr. Weingarten,</p><p>Funny </p>