Saw this tonight and thought it was very cool!
http://www.king5.com/news/Bellevue-Family-Drops-Power-Gains-7500-79357037.html
Wish I'd known about it.
Great idea!
Enjoy,
Steve
I've heard that energy companies are now charging more baseline "transmission and hookup" fees to offset lower energy usage and prevent people with 100% PV powered homes from getting the grid "bank" free. I read on some other forum a family cut their energy usage in half and their bill went UP!
http://consumerist.com/2009/07/got-solar-panels-utility-wants-to-charge-you-for-not-using-their-energy.html#comments-content
I don't think I could cut my electrical usage by 80% with out a lineman's cutter. The fact that they went to Hawaii for the month is only a sidelight - not really. Even when we lived in Seattle and went to Hawaii for January our good old electric heat kept Puget Sound Energy solvent.
As for free rides, I think folks in electric utilities should choose their words just a bit more carefully. Enron, Enron, Enron.