Target "Cheaper Power"

GOAL: Create a sketch of how much alternative home electricity sources is realistically capable of reducing monthly operating costs

Explanation

At roughly 86%, electricity consumption is lion's share of fountain operating costs. One way to reduce this burden would be to access power more cheaply than what the grid can provide.

Current grid power estimates are for continuous 8500 W draw for 7 hours per day, or 60kWh per day, @ $0.14 / kWh.

Deliverables

• a report on realistic alternative home energy sources and an estimate of their cost/kWh.
• the calculated cost of alternative power must include the capital costs amortized over the expected lifetime of the system, plus costs of any ongoing consumables and/or maintenance

Success conditions

• the report will be deemed successful if it can identify a credible source that can be mixed with grid power and deliver the 666 kWh/day required for a combined price at least 25% cheaper than grid power alone. (ie < $0.10/kWh as compared to $0.14 from the grid)

Progress

• [ ] make a list of feasible system types
• [ ] identify 3 credible, currently available models for each
• [ ] compute amortized lifetime costs of each model and factor that into total power costs