Re: Energy Generating Pizo Electric Floors
Perfect example of thinking outside the box! I was actually surprised how much energy they said this could generate (they said 1400 watts kW per day but I'm sure they meant kw-hr). BTW, it's spelled piezo.
Actually, lots of these types of ideas are pretty nonintrusive. Many even pay for themselves in the long run. I have a confession to make. Most of my incentive for going "green" is that I'm a cheap SOB. I like to spend as little money as possible on things I have to spend money on. In quite a few cases the energy saving alternative ends up costing less in the long run. I went completely LED this year for Christmas for example (second year in a row but last year I only had about 800 lights):
2112 lights, 135 watts. The miniature incandescent would have used about 940 watts. The lights are on 7 hours a days for about 45 days. LED saves about 250 kW-hrs, or $70, annually at our current electric rates. I purchased some sets last year and some this year. Total cost was something like $200. That's about three years to break even. After that it's all gravy. Another plus is not having to waste literally hours each year replacing burnt out bulbs. That was an annual ritual I can do without. 2 or 3 lamps failed last year but they were easy to find as the rest of the string remained lit. Normal number of bulb failures for my old incandescent strings was something like 10% annually. Colors with LED are more vivid also. Perfect example of the newer, "eco-friendly" (BTW, I hate that term) thing being superior in every way to what it replaces.
