Mr. Stank, I did enquire what it would take to convert my house to completely "off grid" solar. The answer was about $45,000 in solar panels, plus instalation, etc. The break even, given my $600/mo. electric bill was about 80 months, and then the solar panels would have to be replaced shortly there after. But I have seriously considered it. The one thing I could not get an answer for from the Solar Panel people was, at what wind speed do my solar panels fly off my roof? Before the 3 hurricanes, I wouldn't have even worried about it, but now...well, I doubt if they would survive 16 hours of 120 mph wind. But then I thought, hey, I'll mount them on removeable brackets, take them off before the storm hits, and mount up my big butt Wind Generator for the storm!

But when I asked the local building code people about that, they said Wind Generators are forbiden by code. Might hurt the birds...

Here's a thought. I ride my bike 10-20 miles a day, when I'm home. How about if I bring the bike indoors, hook it up to an alternator and that to my electrical panel. Then ride my bike in front of the TV for an hour or two, and sell my hard earned electricity back to the Utility Co.?! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

And that Gulf Stream Hydro Generator of yours? You might hurt the fish! But dumping all that polution into the ocean? That's ok I guess.

OK, here's one other idea I had, someone with some real Nuke Engineering schooling tell me why it won't work:

Build a bunch of Nuke Plants, 200 feet UNDER GROUND. That way, if there were ever a massive problem, you just fill in the hole. I mean, they test real nukes underground all the time, right?