Hehe, this is one of my specialties bro, power!
Check out coolerado.com, they have a 5-ton AC that only draws 600 watts, it costs 5 grand, but what ever!
Geothermal cooling is huge. My next house (built on a hill with a 2-3K square foot basement) will use geo cooling. Basically, picture a 4' diameter pipe running 20 feet underground, about 100 feet out from your house, up to a vent cap. Suck air in through a big fan, and it will ALWAYS be cool air, year round, and hardly any power except the fan. Doubles as an escape tunnel too.
Yeah solar + hydro plus some batteries, you'd be off-grid in no time. Big diesel genny needed for a big indoor op, but that goes with the territory. Would be nice if we could have cheap at-home water catalyzing so we could generate hydrogen on demand too, but that won't be any time soon.
The prices are actually coming way down for this technolodgy plus you can get tax credits for many systems out there. It is deffinatley something I am going to do. Not so much because I worry about my electric bill (only run a 600) but because I want to make a change in the way I am impacting this earth. Might be a small impact with just me, but if we all start getting together on things it can make a huge difference.
I'm on PG&E CARE and TOU meter, my power is about .08/kwh at night, so my bill is only about 400 a month.
If you're running serious wattage California might be cheaper than most other states all told if you're able to run the CARE program, it seems.
will try a funny. so bare with us..
we co-op (kind of like hippies, but differ), so whoever is the lasiest worker that day has to peddle the bike to run the lights the next day.
also thought about quad flower rooms and using some solar to run the other while on... technology just not there yet....
edit: why is this is the Medical forum ? mod's maybe move it?