solar

Ok fine I just read about it at Wired, but One Block Off the Grid looks pretty interesting. They collect a bunch of people in a city who want to get solar installed, and then negotiate a sweet deal on solar installations with all that collective buying power.

Their rates for their current campaign in Los Angeles look pretty attractive: about $6 a watt before government rebates and tax credits, and about $3.15 a watt after. So a 3 kilowatt system comes out about $10,000, though you may need to be able to front 18,000, I'm not sure.

Solar increases home resale value by a lot, too, so in addition to making it back in your electric bill, you make it back when you sell the house. I don't think we really use a ton of electricity, so a 3kW system should be plenty for us.  Just interesting. Though I think before we do something like this, we'd want to make other efficiency improvements like replacing our windows and blowing insulation into our walls. Then we can talk solar.