Green Power Money - Generating money by going green

My name is James Hunter, 31 from Kent, UK. I've always been facinated with going green, and I've always known theres money to be made from doing so! It's been an idea mumbled over countless pints down the pub for years. Anyway, I've picked up the courage to actually do this. Read my journey below!

Feel free to contact me, james@greenpowermoney.com

The Solar Panels have arrived!

Monday, 2nd February 2008

Earlier than expected, the solar panels have arrived! Over the next few days, they will be fitted, one by one. My roof will look like a gleaming sun. There are 3 people here at the moment fitting them. I'm not sure how heavy they are, but I helped pick one up and it wasn't light! They are monsters.

This is an exciting time. Just one month into this project and we should have the solar panels up and powering the entire house from nothing but the sun. Amazing.

3 panels are due to be fitted today, with the rest all sorted by the end of the week. I've been reading more into the wind turbine option, and it really is the next piece of equipment that I need to order. There are a few more complicated areas to this now as I will be creating energy that I may not need straight away, so storing energy is another factor! I'll keep you updated!

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Waiting on the Solar Panels

Monday, 30th January 2008

No sign of the panels yet, they are due anytime from now until the first week in February. I'm quite excited still! These solar panels should in theory power my entire house. This leaves me to my next stage, making money! Once I've got the solar panels fitted and paying their way, I should be able to add extra equipment. I've been looking at wind turbines. I'm not too sure on how big I can go with these, but I'm looking into them and doing my research. They are expensive, but it's another investment.

Will keep you updated.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ordered Solar Panels

Monday, 26th January 2008

I've done it! I've ordered my first set of Solar Panels. I say first lot, as I havn't gone too crazy and ordered enough to fill my roof. I live in a fairly decent sized 4 bedroom detached house with a medium sized garden. Somebody came out on Wedneday to check that my roofing and surroundings were suitable.

My closest neighbour's property is a good few hundred metres away from my house, so planning permission and other complicated paper work that would normally need to be sent out to close-by neighbours was spared. I was slightly worried about this, as I know it can cause huge amounts of delays.

I've been quoted that I need around 2,000 watts to power my entire house. To make 2,000 watts of power you need solar panels that are about 24 feet long by 10 feet high. That's about as long as one and-a-half cars and a little higher than most of your ceilings. That's still a lot of panels. But once you get them up, they last for well over 20 years. And since they have no moving parts, they almost never break.

I have ordered 10 solar panels. The dimensions of these panels are 1570mm x 798mm x 35mm costing £955 ($2000) each. So that's cost £9,550 ($20,000). But hopefully a very worthwhile investment! They are Sanyo's HIT 215 solar pv module. Apparently one of the best. They will be delivered and mounted in the next couple of week's. An exciting time! Very exciting!

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Next step to making money by going green

Monday, 21st January 2008

Right, it's been a week! The house is full of power saving bulbs and I'm living like an eco warrior! Not quite, but it felt like that at first. I've been having showers instead of baths, switching all electrical appliances off standby etc.

I'm ready for ordering in the equipment that will now start powering my house. I've been suggested that the best way to begin are by solar panels. Trouble-free apparently! There are so many questions that need answering before going ahead with an order its unbeleiveable. When you think you know the answer to it all, 5 more questions pop up. 'Should I clean my panels when they get dirty?', 'How?', 'Should I be worried about the glycol solution in the heat transfer pipe?' - I'll come to that a bit later on!

Well, apart from finding out how many panels I will need, there are a few more things that need confirming before placing an order. Happy days!

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Low-Energy Bulbs

Monday, 14th January 2008

The bulbs have arrived and I've started the strenuous task of replacing all the old bulbs with these beasts. They don't look as nice I must admit, and I think the lighting it slightly dimmed, but who cares? We are making money here!

Swapping all of these bulbs is only one part to the cutting down on electricity job. I will need to ensure my house is properly insulated, which it is (carried out only one year ago). Also we will only be turning on the heating and using hot water when nessecary. There are plenty of other techniques which I will have to keep to in order to cut down on the electricity use. Other energy saving tips are:

• Use the kettle to boil water for cooking, instead of heating a pan on the stove. Not only will this be more efficient, but it generally takes less time too!

• Using a shower instead of a bath uses far less energy

• After having a bath in winter, dont pull the plug on the hot water until it has cooled down (and thus heated your house) it may look dirty, but you've just used a lot of energy to heat up that water. There's no point letting it, and your money, go down the drain

• Switch all electrical appliances off at the plug instead of using the 'standby' function. During standby the appliances are still using electricity, and astonishingly, this accounts for 6% of all electricity usage in the home!

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Cutting down on electricity use

Monday, 7th January 2008

Ok, I've had my head stuck in books, magazines, news articles and websites all explaining the pros, cons, and how to begin by going green. I've studied a particular section of this first step which I think is the most realistic way of starting this mamaoth task. I need to cut down my use on electricity. Before I can go out there willy-nilly and begin to ordered the technology that will power my house, I need to first cut down my own use on electricity. Otherwise I will be needing 10x the amount of equipment.

I'm taking the first step by changing all of my lightbulbs. Low-energy bulbs use a fraction of the energy used by normal lightbulbs. I've been recommended to use MEGAMAN Energy Saving Ultra Compact Candle. This will replace the 30 light bulbs we have in our home. At £10 ($20) a pop, their not cheap. So current investment stands at £300 ($600).

I'll let you know once they have arrived, this is going to be a fun job!

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Heavy Researching

Friday, 5th January 2008

I've always been interested in going green so I would say I know my stuff, but I've been doing some heavy researching over the last couple of days! Amazing. I won't bore you with all the facts and figures just yet, but I've got a general idea of where to start this.

It looks like the first step is to being by reducing my electricity bills. Getting them lower and lower until I don't need to use the national grid supply of electricity.

Will continue to research!

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Green Power Money - Generating money by going green

Tuesday, 1st January 2008

So I've finally decided to do it. It's been an idea mumbled over countless pints down the pub for years. Why now I don't know, but I've set myself one of those new year resolution thingies. Expect it to last a week...

Ok, what is this mad idea I hear you cry? I'm going to be rich. I'm going to generate money by going green. How hard can it be? Well that's what I'm going to do. Over the next few months (possibly years), I'm going to change my life around and go green, with the goal in mind to make money from it. Every part of going green saves money, (apparently) and so I'm going to go one better and make money from this.

I have decided to keep an online diary of my venture. Make sure you bookmark this website. You will see the ups, the downs, and hopefully a new way of making money!