The Counter-Clockwise Power Meter
I am not an environmentalist—too many kooks, "true believers", charlatans and fascists inhabit that space. However, I am a conservationist; conserving natural resources makes good economic sense, it's aesthetically pleasing, it's charitable to one's neighbors, and it is part of being a good steward of God's gifts to mankind. I know it sounds like I'm playing a semantics game, and I guess in part I am.
It's like feminism. I am a supporter of all things feminine. However, much of what cloaks itself in formal "feminism" looks to me more like female supremacy. Perhaps one might more properly call it "femaleism"? Anyway, I love women, have deep respect for all of the important, powerful, and underappreciated ways they contribute to civil and spiritual life. But I abhor group identity politics and all the ugly intellectual violence it does to individuality.
But I'm way off track, here. My point? No one would ever accuse me of being an environmentalist, probably just on the strength of my political conservatism. However, the idea of "going off the grid" with regard to power consumption—the notion of being a net producer, not user, of energy—and clean energy at that—has always been a little fantasy of mine. My conservative appreciation for what is sometimes called "rugged individualism" has yearned for years for the opportunity to become more and more self-sustaining and less and less dependant upon burning other people's resources in some faraway coal plant.
And so, I find this article, “'Zero-Energy' home plans, in the city or in the sticks" (Matt Edens, Knoxville Metro Pulse: Commentary, 2007) to be really exciting. Here's the lead paragraph:
Living “off the grid” in a home that uses superior efficiency and renewable sources to produce all its electrical needs without plugging into the power grid has long been a goal of environmentalists and conservationists everywhere. Today, that goal is essentially achievable, and you don't have to be a tree-hugger living deep in the forest to do it.
Read on to discover how people are building homes for under $100k that give back to the power grid almost as much energy as they draw from it, all without looking like dorky George Jetson style twinkidomes.