BilikFamily.com

Safari - I was surfing the web today on my laptop doing research on renewable energy solutions (besides the pellet stoves we have) and government incentives/rebates. As I was browsing I noticed something cool about the latest version of Safari (Apple's web browser) that ships with the new version of the operating system. Mac OS X has always had built in support for Acrobat PDF files - both opening them and generating them - but it's really "kicked up a notch" now. In the earlier versions of Safari it usually launched the bulky Adobe Acrobat Reader software when you clicked on a PDF file. Now PDF files are inline rendered, natively and rather beautifully, inside of Safari by the operating system's native engine without launching Adobe's software. It's so seamless that sometimes you don't realize that you are looking at a PDF file. Suddenly I don't cringe when I see a PDF link. It "just works" the way that it should and looks good doing it.

Renewable Energy - So what kind of stuff did I look up? There are numerous government programs at federal, state, and local levels to incentivize people to consider alternative energy sources. Normally the up front cost is so high that it discourages consumers from making the investment, but in some locations the incentives can really lower the final installation cost. I was looking into what the US, New Hampshire, and Milford offer. Well, if you get a rebate from your utility company for power you generate, it's exempt from being considered as income. Gee, thanks. No really. Now could you stop counting the couple hundred dollars I make on my checking account interest as income? Also, Milford says that if I add anything solar based, the improvement it provides to my property is exempt from property tax for purposes of home valuation. Again, thanks. How about something significant, like letting me deduct a portion of the investment from my property tax. No, we'll just assure you that we won't tax you extra. In some politician's mind not penalizing you counts as an incentive. Perhaps there's more opportunities available, but I haven't found it yet, at least for our location. I'm still researching.

Solar solutions have come down significantly, but they're still not cheap. Just in raw dollars, the long term payback from efficiency gains is pretty high. It costs roughly $9000 to setup a solar system that would generate one kilowatt. This is assuming no batteries or generators. You just put your excess power into the power grid and take from the grid when you need to. Your power meter runs both ways. Without greater incentives it looks like you really have to be motivated (genuine environmental concerns, vanity, "sticking it" to the utilities, etc) to make such an investment. Our pellet stoves are a bargain compared to the cost of solar panel installation. Still, I want to look at the cost of a a kilowatt-hour in NH (we have some of the most expensive electricity in the US) and crunch the numbers. Of course our biggest savings would come if I could get the kids better trained at shutting off lights. *grin*