I had the pleasure to visit with my uncle Dave this weekend and he gave me some details on his new house. Located on the edge of Hinesburg, Vermont, it is part of a development of six homes with a goal of being energy neutral - producing as much energy as they consume. My Uncle Dave had just received his year end report from the local utility and was pleased to report that he had produced a little more electricity than he had consumed for the year. This includes his heat which is electrically driven.

Their house is a well insulated, passive solar house with solar electric on the roof and uses a geothermal heat pump system for space heating. The solar electric is a grid tie system and feeds his neighbors when their house isn't using all of it's output. The geothermal system pulls heat from the earth which makes it tremendously more efficient during Vermont's cold winters than a regular heat pump. Cooking is done with propane which is about the only energy that is not produced by the house systems.

Dave contracted to buy the house long before the current oil price runup and has just lived there for a year. He and his wife are strong environmentalists and believe in putting their money where their beliefs are. The cost of the house is such that most people would not justify it even at todays oil prices.

Sometimes there are more important things than money and sometimes the money just comes along later. Dave and his wife believe that their efforts are a small part of what is required to save the world but it doesn't hurt to have free heat at the same time.

While some people will just complain about the price of oil, others will take steps to cut their dependence. The individual reasons are perhaps less important than the final results. Whether you think that oil is just too expensive, whether it is environmental concern, or perhaps the politics of the oil market that bother you, there are steps that can be taken right now to reduce or eliminate your use of oil. At the current price and an average useage of 1000 gallons per year, Daves house will save him about $4600 dollars this winter. Even if your own concerns are more toward saving money than saving the environment, saving energy can still be a good investment.

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