Green, Eco Friendly Class A Monoblocks

You are wasting your time trying to be efficient with your stereo. The average system I've seen around here costs maybe $20 per month. Try to get the whole house off the grid and you will do some justice.

Solar thermal heating with massive concrete mass in the building is a good way to go, given a heavily insulated building. We have solar PV as well and have a five day battery backup, however it requires about 1 hour of maintenance per month, as do our composting toilets.

If you are of the mindset that you take care of yourself, a republican mindset, than the investment will fulfill your principles.

If you are concerned about the planet, the sun can be harvested better today than ever before. Go for it!

Email if you think I can help.

B

Peter_s,
Apologies to CW in advance on going slightly OT... do the heatpumps generate electricity or only generate air/water-heating capacity? I have yet to find a heatpump which can generate electricity well without having the input significantly above ground temperature. Also, from what I have read over the past few years, in colder climes, boring deep and sinking "U tubes" gives better energy efficiency than digging horizontal trenches with a backhoe (which is obviously a lot cheaper); that said, it is obviously not a bad idea in the desert (or in places where the bedrock is very shallow).

Back on topic...
If you just want a system to generate electricity to cover the audio, using efficient speakers and matched 'small' amps will go a LONG way to making it possible, but the first 100 watts of solar installation is the most expensive (per kWh).　If you have a large property in windy area, using mini windmills plus a bank of batteries can be a way to generate smallish amounts of electricity. If you want to use "green" power to cover 2kW of usage, then you are probably talking upwards of $10k of kit plus further installation costs. If you want 2kW for the audio and another several kW for the rest of the house, it is a fair bit more.

Hi T_bone,

You're right, they just generate heat, not electricity. If you are going closed loop, I'm not sure of the trenching depth that gets you pretty well far away from the seasonal and diurnal temperature fluctuations at the surface - a borehole definitely does that. Even more efficient (and costly) is an open loop system using two wells, where groundwater is extracted, heat exchanged, and reinjected. It gets you up to an efficiency factor of 4 rather than the low 3's with a closed loop system (for those wondering, efficiency factor means for every 1 watt of energy you put into the system you get 4 watts of heat out of the system).

Peter_s,
Water Furnace Envision series (dual-speed versions) will get you a COP of 5 on closed loop, but they are probably the exception as that is the most efficient one out there I think. Disclosure: just based on my research; never bought one or sold one and no economic link to anyone in the business.