Drop in if your in Steinbach

Thursday, February 23 7:00PM at The Eastman Education Centre, Loewen Blvd. Solar in the Southeast. We have arranged a panel of people who are living with solar in their homes:

• Kyle Friesen lives at Mitchel with his family. He has installed a bank of photovoltaic cells on his roof.
• Herman Unrau lives at St. Malo with his wife. He has installed a bank of vacuum evacuated tubes on his roof. Herman blogs here.
• Randy Proven, with his son Evan and nephew Donald have built several energy efficient homes in Winnipeg. They have combined super insulation and solar thermal. Read about them in the attachment.
• Evolve Green, the local alternate energy company will have a trade display in the foyer. http://www.evolvegreen.ca/home.html
• I attach a poster. Please put it up where people will see it. We depend on you.

Hot deals on LED and solar panels 225 watt conergy

http://www.evolvegreen.ca/hot_deals.html

 Conergy Solar ONTARIO Content ON SALE by the Pallet give us a Call for more information!

225 wat and 230 watt Conergy solar panels ON Clearance for only $345.00 ea

M215's ON Sale for only $169 ea call now to book.

2PK Aurora 5kw ONTARIO Content 5% off regular price and FREE SHIPPING IN ONT!

EvolveLED G60 30% off to the end of Feb/2012

Beat Hydro now and get a passive ON GRID solar system on your home!
We have a special 2012 offer for you!
You Get:
QTY 8 Solar Panels  230 Watt Conergy 25 year warranty total of 1840 Watts that can produce average 7360 per day.
flush mount racking 10 year warranty
grounding
string inverter SMA 3kw so you can up size your panels later if you want!
You do not need batteries for this system!
With install $11,357 CAD TurnKEY!  (where available)
or $8108.00 Equipment only!

Do you want a OFF Grid system?
We can do that too just give us a call and we can design you off grid dream!

Start Saving today by Adding the Power factoring to your home! Only $299 payback in only .83 of a year average Save 5% 30% on your Power bill! 5 year warranty.

Do you want to save money?
We can show you how! Start with our own Brand of LED lighting save up to 85% of your lighting bill payback in less then 2 years and we have a 3 year warranty! EvolveLED is a MANITOBA brand of LED lighting! That is right home grown!

Herman@evolvegreen.ca

866.538.6583

Cool Energy - Low Temperature Stirling Engine for waste heat recovery and solar CHP

Cool Energy - Low Temperature Stirling Engine for waste heat recovery and solar CHP:

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Alberta Launches New Lighting Incentive Program | energy exchange

Alberta Launches New Lighting Incentive Program | energy exchange:

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Do I grid tie or do I off grid tie??

     When I consider the cost verses payback and I ponder about world events I realize it comes down to what I believe. Do I believe my energy cost per kilowatt will go up the next 20 years? Do I believe that the our economy can come down around us like in Greece and others we are witnessing? You believe what you want but I'm going to produce my own energy, grow my own food, and always being willing to help out my neighbors. It's not always about payback for me.

  When I consider the cost of on grid tie or off grid,  the facts are that they are both 20 year life span systems and they are both scale able.. one can start small (keeping cost down) and adding to it down the road. Also you should consider both systems even if you have power tied to your home. The only components the same on these systems is the solar panels. All other components are different. I also believe that both system would increase the value of my home by at least the amount it would cost. The starter systems would produce about a 3rd to 1/2 of my current needs.

     A starter grid tie system of 2.5 kilowatt would cost just under 10k and I can install it my self with the exception of hooking up to hydro which should be done by my neighbor and friend. (the electrician). Of course I will need a net metering agreement with Manitoba Hydro and a permit. This system could produce enough for my summer needs and maybe even squirrel some kilowatts away for winter when our heating cost spike the bill.

      A starter off grid tie system would cost around 18k. This includes 2.5 kilowatt of solar panel a 4 kilowatt inverter 48 volt and yes batteries are included. Batteries should have about 10 years life span. The neat part about these systems is they are smart with advance technology that can use the grid to charge your batteries if they get low, just like a generator back up would. I would keep my energy guzzlers like dryer, hot water tank stove still drawing from the grid. I don't even need a permit or agreement with hydro to go even partial off grid. Nobody telling me want to do.... I like that.
If I was building a new home and have to pay to have hydro wired in, well then off grid is a no brainer. I would spent about 25k in that case.

So as you can see, there is two sides to this coin. Let me know which way you think I should go herman@evolvegreen.ca  The same numbers could work for you. I can finance these package now. Pay it off in 5 years.

Thanks for reading "greening my world"
www.evolvegreen.ca
Herman

My energy monitor update..How I saved 25%.. just like that

Ok so how does a energy monitor save you money? well I decided to do a test. It was pretty obvious that the energy guzzler in my home is the 8kw floor boiler that tops up the energy to my floor heat. I have solar thermal working well and I wanted to see if I turned the boiler off... would we experience a decrease in comfort? Would the solar thermal level out the floor temp and by how much? How much kilowatts and dollars will I save? Now to be fair I couldn't use data for the days that we did laundry or any other high usage that varies so much that I'm just guessing, so I excluded that data and just compared 4 days of data against 4 days of data when the floor boiler was on.
   Now I did experience some discomfort by not being able to run around the house in my bare feet.. I have to use slip on's now.  I didn't tell my wife want I did, I was waiting for complaints, but she never did until I told her that the boiler had been off for days now. then she said she had noticed, but didn't say anything. I take that as a passed the wife test. My floor temp only decreased by 5C degrees, not bad and tolerable.
   The 4 days that my boiler was on I used a average of 79.8 kw a day, the 4 days it was off I used a average of 59.5 kw a day.  "That is a 25.2 % savings'   If I leave it off (which I will) I calculated that I will save $37.50 a month .... go figure. This is the middle of January in Manitoba.
   All I did was switch something off and watch what's happening.

I can't wait to install my far infared panels and see not only the saving, but see if I can run around in my bare feet again. At any rate you can bet I will be conducting my test. and blogging about it

Without the energy monitor, I would never had the stones to try this. I would have been sleepless worrying if my floor would freeze and the only way I would know if I made a difference is when the bill comes in. With a monitor I knew within 24 hours that freezing would not be a problem and I slept just fine.

Thanks for reading 'greening my world"
Herman
 

Retrofit Ontario program to conserve power

Finally a great retrofit program for Ontario.

saveONenergy - saveONenergy FOR BUSINESS:

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