This lucky household is about to receive a brand spanking new (belated, complicated)
Christmas gift, one that we can strap our bicycles into and pedal to generate electricity. I'm still in a kind of gift-shock about this, thinking that the best gifts are opportunities, too.
While we have made strides toward mitigating several
energy problems standing in the way between our household and
sustainability, problems remain. One, we don't generate any of our own electricity, though we just switched from a gas
oven and gas range to electric on both. Secondly, we were able to upgrade nearly all our appliances to Energy Star models, and switched from gas heat and gas
hot water to radiant
wood heat and wood-fired
hot water. All our fixtures are now outfitted with CFLs and LEDs, with a few stray halogen bulbs semi-never used for
art work. Extra bucks went toward high-efficiency wash equipment, which is worth the benefits in parka-laden Wisconsin. So, the consolidation to an electric home is still underway. But unlike the last two places called home, this jurisdiction offers no clean energy program, no member buy-in, no power company sponsored renewable energy. Instead of the wind power we blew on air conditioning and letting the HD DVD player menu loop endlessly while being absorbed by some earth-shattering new blog post, now our electrical energy comes from COAL.
Evil, disgusting, polluting, filthy, black, environment-destroying coal. They burn it two towns over, at a critical juncture in the Mississippi that ranks tops for bald eagle habitat next to Alaska and the Everglades. Not the closest I have lived to dirty power, but that was before I lived where I grew food. I have now seen it spoiling the ancient valley, not far downstream from a massive lock and dam, the chimney rising above the bluffs of an otherwise immaculate
local vineyard. So, I envision a world without that coal plant.
Most
solar panels and wind turbine setups were too expensive, and I wanted a reversal of how the energy equation worked. Instead of toiling at some work or job to acquire money to then pay a megaconglomerate to burn coal in an irreplaceable riverine ecology and rich, storied farmland, I could start to remove all the bad parts from that energy process. I wanted to see results of how much human energy it took to satisfy the demands of the appliances I "couldn't do without". Santa listened.
So, before I'm able to put this energy into some future flywheel, I'm ready to install a charge controller and deep-cycle battery. The generator apparatus and cables are on their way. Electrical generation without combustion, with an exercise incentive, without direct environmental energy, organically-fueled -- could this be the way to a self-sufficient, sustainable home, a base for our
permaculture?
Do you use human power in your home, on your farm, or for your work? I'm really into hand-crank, human-power, renewable energy, and now I feel like finding other kindred crankers on here.
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