Energy Sources Explained Part 06: Energy Producing Houses And How to Profit
Zero carbon emission buildings
Most of you should have heard the zero emission buildings and their ability to be 100% efficient at not distributing CO2 in the atmosphere. It would be so nice if it could work. Zero carbon building are not good enough because they are very expensive to build, they need to be in the perfect location or else they will not be able to succeed to their purpose and having em cost about triple the amount of money a simple house costs things get difficult.
So how are we supposed to help the environment?
Well it would be more effective to build by having in mind that you will not be carbon free but you ll do your best to lower your houses footprint. Yes but that doesn't solve the problem... It actually does. If everyone were to build having this in mind we wouldn't have a CO2 problem at least from the housing part of the system.
Alright but what should we build?
We already discussed three types of energy that are renewable, these three are in my opinion the best combination to produce energy, heat, cooling without using CO2 emitting products. Let's say that your house is somewhere high in a valley from sea level. You do have wind but not very good sunlight. The mountains around your valley does not help with sunlight or you are far in the north or south and sunlight is six months and six months isn't. So your first option as in any place on the planet is to add a geothermal heating/cooling system to your place, if as i said you have wind a +12kw wind turbine would be useful (average house hold needs 10kw so a 12kw one shall cover up your needs) and finally a battery to keep your produced energy stored(house batteries are useful even on their own since they can lower your bill about 20%-45%). So with these you will be off the grid using your own power for more than half of the year. If your location is good enough to be able to use the hybrid solar/wind systems plus your geothermal installation you will be living techincally of the grid all year long, well about 20 days of the year are going to have you use grid electricity.
So do we actually save money?
The idea is that you will be able to start profiting in 8-10 years. Of course as an investment it has a really high initial cost. And the future of our kinds economics shows that owning a house is not how things are going to be. But, building this way and having an EV (electric vehicle) which you can recharge at your place totally for free because the energy is yours. Plus maybe using satellite outernet tech that we talked in a previous article some time ago and finally a drilling and a filtering tank for water, makes you self-efficient like for ever or until tech gets better enough to be worth it to change. You might say it is a time consuming plan and it might saves a lot of money over time, but it needs a high initial investment. Can it work? Definitely. Is it worth it? Well that is something that i am not sure myself, i would build this way because i find it ok and useful having my own energy. But really i am not sure.
In conclusion
Maybe in 10-15 years from now this is going to be the way everyone builds, maybe we actually need it. But if it is worth it in our era i don't know. I do know that in 8-10 years they will pay themselves. But it is your time people and it is the most valuable asset you have (it does not turn back).
I hope you find my article interesting, if you did feel free to vote and re-esteem.
Sources of my information are at my previous articles:
You can find more articles of mine here: https://steemit.com/@diasdr
Energy sources explained part 01: https://steemit.com/science/@diasdr/energy-sources-explained-part-01-energy-units
Energy sources explained part 02: https://steemit.com/science/@diasdr/energy-sources-explained-part-02-coal-history-usage-and-drawbacks
Energy sources explained part 03: https://steemit.com/science/@diasdr/energy-sources-explained-part-03-wind-power
Energy sources explained part 04: https://steemit.com/science/@diasdr/energy-sources-explained-part-04-solar
Energy sources explained part 05: https://steemit.com/science/@diasdr/energy-sources-explained-part-05-geothermal-for-house-use
In Germany we already have about 10.000 passive houses, while the US has 13.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_house
The heating this house needs could basically be done by a single cheap heater based on electricity. And since room temperatures change less then 0.5° a day even in winter you can do that on peak electricity times.
Well isn't it only natural? Germany is producing the best solar panel technology on the planet. It also produce first rate batteries. And they support the installation logic of those.
Na, the tech on panels etc. isn't that important, the important thing is the house.
By that you mean the design? If you do ye i totally agree. But still being the best in making the "important" parts of the house is a very big bonus.
There is a way to improve the payback from solar PV, for every 1 MWh the solar owner produces they can claim 1 SolarCoin free of charge. As SolarCoin (SLR) expands the price will increase, so everyone with solar PV who is into crypto should get their free SLR now and maybe even buy some extra. SolarCoin is approved by IRENA and has been presented to the European Parliament and UN.
I do agree, but we should take into account the space needed for solar panels since this article is based in house installations. Of course SLR is going to add on profits which might lower the 8-10 years.