Should of stayed with wood

[Kevin]

SD,

What is the gadget your neighbor is thinking about installing?

A fence. 

[SwampDonkey]

I ain't seen the neighbors all winter.  But, the young feller and his wife has been tending fires over there and the neighborhood is a cloud of smoke from them outdoor furnaces.

Cough.....wheeze........

Good thing no one enforces EPA around here. My garage is full of cedar wood smoke.

[StorminN]

Just an example, but I have heard of folks considering one of those $45,000 windmills, and that isn't a very big windmill. How long will that take to pay for itself?

All the small windmills I've seen in person were owned by people that lived a mile or more from "the grid"... so if it costs $100,000 for a line extension, and $45,000 for a windmill, the windmill pays for itself pretty quickly... plus they'll never have a monthly power bill...

-N.

[SwampDonkey]

The ones I seen are about 1 or 2 poles from the grid. And often if your a ways away from the grid, each new home along the way you get a $20,000 credit. And those $45,000 wind mills are only 20 % efficient producing 7500 kw, so I could probably sell up to 900 kw back to the utility. Anyway, I've never seen any remote ones here. I've seen probably 6 or 8 over in Maine and one near here. The places were not remote. Up here it would be difficult to get too remote if you have a job to go to every day. If I was going to build a sawmill 2 miles away and employ 5 people, I think the government would pay for the line.

or, if I decided to sell $20,000 building lots (1 a year) and get a $20,000 credit from the utility, I could pay for the line in 2 yrs + 6 Months (or 3 years), and it would take 23 years  to spend an equivalent in power as the windmill costs. Is the windmill going to be maintenance free for 23 years?

[isawlogs]

 Yes that could be Swamp ... but you would have neighbours to deal with . I have a few friends that are off grid , it would of cost tem a third more to have hydro hook them up to the grid then the full install of the wind and solar ( one of each ) I know if I where to build off the grid I would seriously be looking into wind and solar . No more hydro bills other then the upkeep of the system and maintenance cost .

[SwampDonkey]

Yeah, I know where your coming from Marcel. Not that I have bad neighbors, we all get along good around here. But, the thread kind of meandered a bit beyond my intension. I actually just wanted to show a method to analyze the situation, not really put down the alternatives. Some people spend money without thinking it through. My big mouth brother is front row and centre in this category. But, he hasn't any money and that has saved him from wasting it.

[Todd]

I like it better when the thread wanders to food instead of math!