Monthly Gas Bill

So, this month my gas bill was $235 . This is incredible to me - the only thing I use gas for is heating the house and heating household water.

Just last night I was watching Dirty Jobs - where a new senior citizens home was being built - with a large number geothermal wells.

These wells were all 90 or so feet in the ground and helped to alleviate the power consumption of the final structure.

60 million barrels of oil a year could be saved if all the schools in the USA employed similar technology.

Now, this isn't that much when you consider that some numbers indicate we consume 19 million barrels a day, but saving 60 million barrels of oil is still significant - it purchases us three days more oil on the year than if we continue with our current usage profile.

So, when I move in to my next house, I'd certainly love to put in such a system. A combination of a wind turbine, geothermal heat source and some solar panels might reduce my oil profile significantly.

But the value isn't there just for a single household to do it. The value is to convert large numbers of homes to it, so that maybe we set up all the schools with geothermal power, then a significant percentage of homes and save another 60 million barrels of oil and we end up with 6 days less of oil consumption next year than this year.

All this construction certianly comes with a cost - and uses oil to be implemented. So, maybe the first year this is a wash. Then in the following years we could start saving more barrels of oil.

Of course, our population (and the world's population) continue to increase and demand will still increase even with implementing these kinds of measures. Without implementing these kinds of measures; however, we will have less energy for everyone (and higher prices).

So, there is little choice. We need to work to start saving energy resources. My gas bill this month is $235 - what will it be next year?