But almost every vehicle on the road right now is capable of much better fuel economy than what the EPA ratings state. And this better fuel economy can be attained at no extra cost! In fact, it will save you lots of money.

Since I wrote the first the first two articles of this series (Article 1, Article 2), I’ve come across another good resource for the wind resistance of trees. This one has its information available for free download.

It is difficult finding what kind of perennial vegetables there are and which are suitable for your area. I live in the Tampa Bay area in Florida and have not found a good list for what works in my area. Therefore, I decided to try to create my own list of what might work for my own yard. I’m sharing this with you not only to help you but also so that hopefully some of you may have more to contribute.

We have all been brainwashed to avoid and look down on solar power, or any renewable energy source for that matter. And I mean ALL of us, including the most leftist, tree hugging, Greenpeace and Sierra Club loving liberal. How can I make such a bold statement?

We now have had a completely finished and functional grid tied, battery backed up, solar electric system for over four months now. We have received four power bills during this time. For each of these billing periods, the electricity we generated was more than we used, so we have paid nothing for electricity from the power company over this period.

So, we now had a working grid tied solar electric system. But at the time Harrimans installed the grid tied portion, Harrimans hadn’t received the battery backup inverter, an SMA SI5048 yet. So, a couple of weeks later they received the SI5048 and proceeded to install the battery backup portion of our system.

The salespersons for these solar installers usually claim that after installing their solar electric systems, your power meter could run backwards. This may be true of the old spinning-aluminum-disk type power meters. But it isn’t true of the typical new digital readout power meters, at least the ones Progress Energy uses. The new standard digital meters can’t tell which direction power flows. So you get billed for all the power that flows through the meter, whether you are consuming electricity or you are generating electricity and putting it back on the power grid. You need a special bidirectional meter installed which can detect which direction the power is flowing.

So, the last week in October, 2009, I gave Harrimans Inc the go-ahead and a down payment for installing a solar electric system on our house. Three weeks later they notified me that they had all the plans, permits, and parts with one exception: They still hadn’t received the battery backup inverter, an SMA SI5048, which wasn’t expected for another couple of weeks. So they planned to install all the grid tie stuff first and add the battery backup stuff after the SI5048 was received.

You could find an installer by doing a net search for your area, looking in the telephone book, or attending various home shows or environmental expos in your area. The problem with these methods is that anyone can present their business through these methods, including amateurs and fly-by-night outfits. It would be better to select from a list that has been at least somewhat prescreened.

The most common question I get is some form of: “When will you get your money back from your solar power installation? How long will it take to break even on your initial investment?”

My question is: Why are you adding this extra condition to anything that helps the environment? You don’t do this for most of other stuff you do.