The Greeny Flat is all electric, i.e. it has no gas, petrol or wood burning appliances. Even our lawn mower and weedeater are electric.
This decision was partly due to our desire to be able to clearly compare how much energy we use with how much we produce, a comparison that is much easier when everything is electric.
More importantly, given the broader goal of learning to live without fossil fuels, we can produce electricity with renewable energy systems. In our case this is a 3kW grid-tied solar power system. Hopefully there will soon be cost-effective energy storage systems available that will reduce our dependence on the fossil-fuel-powered grid for the times when the sun isn’t shining.
Meanwhile we try to use electricity when the sun is shining as much as possible. For example, we often use a slow-cooker (that uses about 400W) throughout the day to cook our evening meal and we mow our grass when the sun is shining.
Mowing the grass is very satisfying knowing that the power is coming straight from our solar panels. The electric mower is quiet too!
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