Making money on the side

How to make home a powerhouse

Robin McKie, science editor
Sunday October 23, 2005
The Observer

Monthly bills for hot water, central heating and lighting no longer trouble Geoff Welton and his wife Judith since they installed a wind generator on their smallholding.

In fact, they have been making money. 'We have generated more than 7,000 kilowatt hours of power, but used only 2,500 hours - even though we have electric central heating and electric cookers,' says Mr Welton. 'We have sold the rest to the power company.'

Pete's Points:

I am of the view that if various government levels decided to purchase and deploy power generation of this kind for their own operations then the cost of the equipment would tend to fall and thus most of us could start to afford it for our own homes then, as a country we could perhaps reduce the consumption of fossil fuels and create the sustainable environment that we all want to live in. If we cannot use our abundant sunshine, wind and tidal power in this country then who can?