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Household Economy
Posts in this category are about Household Economy, or household patterns of consumption and work. Consumption choices may lead to a treadmill of high expenses, stressful work, and an inability to express core values. Life may move so quickly that we fail to use our values to guide our purchases and investments.
For a greater quality of life, make more discerning consumption choices, regain a balance between time, money, and work, and let social and ecological values guide purchases and investments.
(Adapted from ConservationEconomy.net)
Jul. 26, 2010: Mini farmers markets expand to bring local produce to Minneapolis neighborhoods (press release)
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Why You Should Get a Solar Estimate Every Six Months

Even if you have previously had a solar estimate, and did not act because it was just not penciling out for you, you should get a new estimate, if it was six months ago or more. At that time, given those variables, that was the situation. But things are very fluid in the solar world. Some prices are dramatically lower now. So many things are changing. You should not assume that the price you got six months ago holds true today.
Some companies now have access to solar panels that have had very steep price cuts.
You should get an estimate from a different company too, for another reason if your first didn’t pencil out back then. Sales people are human. Some may have made a snap judgment rather than spend a lot of time on an estimate because your needs are too low, simply because the cost-benefit for the sales person didn’t pencil out when there were so many large systems they could sign up instead in the same time.
Some solar companies compensate their sales force in such a way as to discourage them from encouraging too many small systems. It is less profitable getting guys up on a tiny or shaded roof to put in a small system. It is opportunity lost for bigger sales for them, while they are arguing at city hall for your measly permit.
But many solar sales-people have mined the “low-hanging fruit” of larger systems (that are most profitable to them) and are now more willing to look seriously at small systems, since the math has changed.
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10 Million Solar Roofs Bill Moves Forward
If you haven’t heard by now, the U.S. Senate Energy Committee advanced a big piece of solar energy legislation last week (prior to the killing of the climate and clean energy bill). Vermont senator and Green Jobs Committee chairman Bernie Sanders got his "Ten Million Solar Roofs" bill through the influential Energy Committee on Wednesday with a vote of 13-10.
This bill (one of my Top 10 Clean Energy Topics to Keep an Eye On in 2010), as you might guess, is aimed at getting 10 million new solar systems on U.S. roofs in the next 10 years.
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