Does any alternative home energy generation compare favourably?

Question

against natural gas ? If you include instalation and maintenance?

Answer 1

No not really.

Geothermal is fantastic but costs too much to set up !

Answer 2

yip get your own wind mill,they cost around £1500 for a small one the wiring you have in your house just now will do fine you dont get the same strength of power but it does ok.the only thing is you still need to have the mains electric incase your break down but that dont happen very often.anyhow you just pay for services.you could solar paneling but its quite expensive but it pays in the long run.

Answer 3

I think not

Its due to peoples behaviour

Most people use massive bursts of energy for short periods (electric oven or instant electric shower etc) nature likes to provide a trickle over long periods ( wind sun etc ) catching this energy and storing it is quite ineficient.

You can heat water for domestic use using the latest vacuum solar tubes but they are expensive

You could use a wind turbine to run lighting tvs and small computers etc but vacuums cookers and washing machines are awkward.

At the moment anything more than this is not cost effective but as fuel prices continue to rise this will change.

Reducing consumption using better insulation, not having equipment on standby is best for now.

And In the not too distant future wind powered lighting and solar water heating will make economic sense

Home heating and cooking will always present problems for home generation unless you adopt wood burning stove/water heater for central heating but demand for wood will itself cause the cost of this to rise as others join in on the above

We have some difficult times ahead unless the government build loads of new nuclear power plants.

Nuclear can be made safe and secure but judging how the idiots did it last time round I wont hold my breath !

Answer 4

I put one on my house, and kept detailed records.

The anticipated financial payback period was about 17 years, but gas prices kept rising and so the payback fell to about 12 years. It has probably fallen again since I last looked.

It also made me feel quite smug when I told the neighbours that I was not using any gas at all in the summer.