Our home and offices are located at 41 degrees north latitude. This gives us an average of 3 hours of full sunlight a day. We have 6 60 watt panels up (one of these will run a 60W light bulb). This stuff is compiled from the Department of Agriculture's records. This data goes back about 50 years, so it's pretty reliable. We have up a small windmill. It mostly helps in the winter, when the leaves are off the trees and the wind picks up. We don't have a convenient stream uphill or near our house, but that's the best power source if you can get one. Our setup charges about 600 pounds of batteries. Most of it is stuff you could pick up at Sears if you asked in the right department (Solar panels and Deep Cycle batteries are both in the Automotive department, propane refrigerators are in the RV department).

Throughout the day, we may run the computers, microwave, stereo, toaster, vacuum cleaner or TV. Granted, you don't run all this stuff all the time, and you get good at turning out the lights when you leave a room. All our lighting is compact fluorescents. (Once you know how much more efficient fluorescents are, you wonder why anyone uses incandescent bulbs at all.) We run a gas generator to use the dishwasher, but that's mostly an excuse to top off the charge on the batteries. With a few more panels we wouldn't have to do that.

We are 10 miles up a dirt road with most of our neighbors being part time camps who are hooked up to the power company. If a line goes down, our subdivision isn't a high priority with the electric company. With a solar setup, we have never had a blackout. Since we've lived here, we have never had an electric bill. Don't tell me it doesn't work! I'm making it work, right here, right now.