Cold Weather Is Coming & Heating Bills Are Rising, What Are Your Tips To Help Cope With The Cold This Winter?

@TheConstantGardener Some smart person installed solar panels on the roof of his home about a half-mile from here in October. I bet he’s all set now.

@TheConstantGardener Kind of hard to when you live in a 50+ year old disability/62+ apartment building that's section 8 subsidized.

@cherokeepatti It's the future. Turbines, solar panels, hydro-electric. Cheap electricity without the pollution.

@TheConstantGardener those rooftop turbines. If I had money I’d build a home with geo-thermal system to heat and cool and have solar and a wind turbine for electricity to run it and for everything else. Then I’d have a little outdoor kitchen on a covered patio to cook in the summer since I like to bake etc.

@NativePortlander1970 I see that but I meant in general more than personally. Invest in green energy if you have some money to invest, it's the future.

@cherokeepatti You know your stuff. That's the way to go.

@TheConstantGardener Not all places are good for geo-thermal. They were showcasing a new home with it about a decade ago and said the highest electric bill would be $100, I think that included cooking and water heating energy. But with other alternatives you could get that down to zero. Also the way the home is built and the direction it faces and building materials could make it even better.

@cherokeepatti Makes me wonder why this hasn't been rolled out a lot quicker than it has been.

@TheConstantGardener big energy has bought up patents for a lot of energy-saving devices. I heard that the rooftop turbines were big over a decade ago in Australia and we didn’t have them here but now you can order them on Walmart. If you live in a windy area like Oklahoma and a higher elevation oh man that would help a lot. Something else I’d like to see is to recycle water from washing machines and showers to flush toilets with. I hated it so much when we had droughts here several years and they were rationing water telling us what days we could water our outside stuff. All that shower and laundry water going straight down the drains when it could be filtered a bit and used as gray water to flush.

@TheConstantGardener Why would I invest in something I cannot personally use?

@cherokeepatti Over here, some people are having those features installed when they build a house. The problem is that it can get expensive for the initial outlay but it may pay off in the long run. Large, national builders aren't building those features here so it can only be done for people who are self-building. Insulation is one of the easiest, cheapest and most efficient ways to reduce heating costs. May be worth considering.

@NativePortlander1970 when I think of investing in it I would be using it personally.

@TheConstantGardener Big oil/natural gas and coal has blocked it for decades.

@NativePortlander1970 Yep. That's why they've been trying to avoid the climate crisis problem for decades with misinformation, obfuscation and lobbying of politicians.

@TheConstantGardener well they’ll pay off good when the prices of utilities go up and up. I would just love to have an off-grid home and not be at the mercy of the energy companies. Two incidents last winter, an ice storm that knocked a lot of people out of electricity from one day to a couple of weeks last October here and a very cold snowy winter storm with rolling blackouts and some actual energy outages was a wake-up call for some people about having alternatives.

@TheConstantGardener More like disinformation, deliberate lies.

@NativePortlander1970 It’s a lie to ration energy and make people pay a carbon tax on everything. It would cause inflation so bad most people wont’ be able to live.

@cherokeepatti A lot of houses are heated on gas here. It comes from Belarus and they have been hiking up the prices extensively. Around 20 national suppliers have already gone bust, leaving the taxpayer to pick up a hefty bill. We need to invest in green energy rapidly to avoid being at the mercy of unscrupulous suppliers.

@NativePortlander1970 Lots of people do. It's a good financial investment.

@TheConstantGardener If I cannot personally benefit from it, i.e, my own lowered bills, then it's a waste of money.

@NativePortlander1970 Fair enough but you would benefit in terms of receiving a dividend each year which you could use to offset any rise in heating costs. Just a suggestion.

@TheConstantGardener How, when I am on fixed income and barely have any money left by the end of the month. Did you see my reply that said Inlive in section 8 subsidized housing? I am on social security disability, I can barely invest in my own cost of living.

@NativePortlander1970 not everyone can invest in things.

@cherokeepatti There are many things I wish I could invest in, Medical Cannibis being my main interest.