How to Reduce your Home Energy Costs
and Utility Bills

There are a lot of "green" web sites out there, capitalizing on the buzzwords currently in vogue and which for the most part have little idea if their products have a down side or even make sense. This site is different -- it is science and testing oriented rather than a purely marketing tool. We want you to have the knowledge to recognize foolishness when you see it. There is a lot of free and original material here to help you minimize your long term electric and heating expenses.

Anyone that wants to have more money every month will find the e-book and video very interesting. It is the only material I know of that focuses on the economic bottom line of everything. For example, choosing a "green" ENERGY STAR® qualified appliance doesn't make sense if the value of the future savings are less than the price of the appliance.

I particularly dislike deceptions and fraud. As I find energy related ones, I will add them to the scams section. If you know of others, I'd be happy to expose them.

For those of you that like to do it yourself or have an interest in science and the engineering of sustainable living, like to experiment or are interested in solar power, hydronic heating, monitoring energy consumption or home automation - new pages in these areas are being added all the time.

You shouldn't be surprised to hear that much of what you hear in the media is simplistic, distorted and often just plain wrong. Journalists don't have the science backgrounds needed to see through the deceptions and the media giants are concerned about offending the commercial interests that give them their ad revenue. The result is an endless stream of drivel about totally insane things. You really need to question everything, sort of a guilty (fraud or delusion) until proven innocent attitude.

You will find a lot of material on this web site which I hope you will find useful, especially things like the kWh data link where you can see what real appliances cost to run, consumer frauds under "things to avoid" and useful short video clips.

There is also a blog called the Voice of Reason which you can subscribe to with a RSS feed and a free e-mail newsletter. The blog is where I put all sorts of interesting tidbits and analysis, and the newsletter is more focused on saving energy costs. We have also started a sustainable living Wiki.

We also have a lot of other projects on the go including:

• A system to enable grantors/philanthropists  to figure out what ideas they should be funding to reach their goals, and to match them up with researchers.
• Encouraging a systems approach to environmental governance
• Weather instruments with no moving parts.
• A complete home automation system that allows you to control your house from your cell phone or iPod touch.
• Wind power generation, C02 demand based ventilation controllers, whole house energy monitors and components to support sustainability living.

Have fun and enjoy the site, and please leave comments. We are always open to ideas for improvement.

Peter Parsons, 2009