Does anyone out there on my Friends List know about alternative power at home? Like having your own solar panels or mini wind turbines and whatnot?

I’m not particularly interested in wind, but I’ve always wanted a house with solar panels. Apparently you can get them at Canadian Tire now and places like Home Depot also offer installation. Huh. Who knew?

Anyway, just throwing it out there. Any input is awesome.

I’ve been looking for a site that lists the actual costs and benefits in simple terms. Such as “if you want to do X, you’ll need Products A, B, and C, which cost about $A, $B, and $C and can provide $Q savings and Z benefits. If you want to do Y, you’ll need… etc.”
Stuff about Canada would be best, but northern USA works too.

Is it worth doing to heat your water?
Is it worth doing to generate power for your house?
It it not worth it for anything until the tech improves/until something else?

I know there’s a program in Ontario where you can connect your PV panels to the Grid and the government will pay you for the power you put into the Grid, but I think that’s for larger installations than a household roof?

We signed our purchase agreement for our house!
Well, conditional upon financing, lawyer review, and a home inspection once the place is built, of course.

But still!!!
We’re on our way to owning a house! Yaaaaaaay! ^_^

House House House House House House House House House House!

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If anyone out there is going to be a cyborg for Hallowe’en (like me) or a robot or something, I urge you to look into making some LED Throwies.
The quick synopsis: Take an LED and a 3V lithium battery. Slide the LED prongs over the battery with the long prong touching the positive side of the battery. Tape in place (I’m using electrical tape instead of the clear tape they use, because I’m sticking mine near fabric and skin, not tossing them around outside). Instant lit LED! No wires or soldering skill required. Awesome. ^_^
Then you can just put them onto your costume, and there’s no wires running all over you. I just left out the magnets, as I didn’t need them to be magnetic since I’m attaching them to my costume.

Mine ended up being a bit more expensive than the ones on the Intarwebz, even though I skipped the magnets (that would have made them even more expensive) because the only LEDs I could get my hands on were 20/$5, but they’re still cheap. I went to RaioShack. Don’t go there for the batteries though; they were about $4 each. Head on down to your local Dollar store, where I picked up mine at 3/$1. You don’t need fancy ones, all they need to do is power a single LED, not a digital camera. ^_~