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Getting Off the Grid
At the recent Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting in Omaha Nebraska, Warren Buffet made a comment that I found amusing. He said, "Whoever thought that burning corn for fuel was a great idea is an idiot." Apparently he has said this for years, and he also went on to explain that solar and wind should be the only alternative energy sources considered based on current population growth and required consumption rates.
Coming from the richest man in the world this must his logic must have some merit. I tend to agree with his opinion. I not only agree from an environmental standpoint, but from a national security point of view. Think about it, terrorists don't need nuclear weapons to give us problems, all they have to do is take out several main power stations throughout the US at the same time with a regular explosive device and the economy will screech to a halt.
 No power from the major stations means, no manufacturing, no working gas pumps, no working street lights, no air conditioning, etc. A better defensive move for the US against terrorism would be to decentralize its power production to the individual homes or businesses themselves. This is very possible with solar and wind power and would work almost exactly like the Internet. Except instead of sending information and email, each house would make and share electricity with everyone.
I have always wanted to put solar on my house so that I could offset the cost of running my air conditioner in the summer. There was a two part article in two issues of Make magazine showing how to build solar panels by yourself and then hooking them to your home. It seemed really complicated though...
 The other day I did find a magazine called Home Power that has articles and resources for commercial setups with pre-made solar panels, plus individual wind turbines. The cost isn't cheap to set up, but if you do the math it can pay for itself in three years. The bonus is you can sell your house for more because it doesn't rely on the power company, and any extra energy it makes you can sell back to the grid.
As with any obscure magazine that you are not able to find on our website, you can order both Home Power ($24.95) and Make Magazine ($34.95) through us from our offline catalog, just send us an email or give us a call (800-527-5901) if you are interested in either of these titles.
In the meantime you can check out their websites Home Power Magazine's website here and Make Magazine's website here .
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