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Coal boiler/furnace is going to run low to high 80's.
1 Ton of coal = 8141 kWh , From your bill $172.81-$14.01 for 1404 kWh means $900 for 8141 kWh. Now you use ten tons of coal ($200 ton total of $2K). So that means the equivalent energy would cost you $9000(ignoring any inefficiencies). Since you specifically said $6700 I assumed 75% efficiency for your coal furnace and 100% for electricity.
But details of your calculation aside, your main point is that fossil fuels are way ahead of electricity most of the time. For a while heating oil was getting pretty close to electricity.
But these $3K-$3.5K Musk batteries don't make the ROI any better. The Time of Use policies being introduced in PA may give you free electricity from 10PM -6AM, but they jump the price the rest of the time to 12 cents per kWh (generation only). Given that the battery will cycle anywhere from a pessimistic 1000 times to an optimistic 3000 times, I can't see how you could possibly save money with a home battery.
A cell phone provides an improvement over a landline,
Cellphones may provide mobility with voice comms, but what about internet?
Most people are still connected to a wire so they can get access online. Phone companies are not going anywhere.
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... electricity is electricity so it boils down to cost. That's the case for most people at least, obviously for people in this forum getting off the grid may be more important than cost. There is a very long way to go before solar, wind or whatever is going to be competitive against fossil fuels. Even with the subsidies and the increased costs to fossil fuels it's still not even in the ballpark.
This only works if you are in a unique area where Utility power is somewhat reliable.
No landline phone since '97, I get internet thru cable co
No cable company in my town [like most of the USA].
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... ... Like most of the USA?
Yes. Only a tiny minority of the USA landmass is urban. Most of the USA is rural, miles and miles between houses.
No broadcast TV signal since high-power broadcast was made illegal, and no cable.
Most square-miles anywhere in the USA, grid power is not available. It is primarily available in urban population-densities. Even in my town, grid power is only available along a given stretch of our road, not all of the road, just part of it. Most parcels of land/homes in our town do not have access to grid power.
I am on grid. Though our grid goes down regularly. We normally see 2 to 4 outages a month. That is the thing rural power. You can not be too rural or you can not get power, and when you do get access to power, it is not reliable. Like most of the USA.
The BTU's in a ton of coal is variable. You're quoting a number of almost 28 million BTU's which is going to be on the very highest end. On average for anthracite it's going to be in the 24 to 25 million BTU range. For my estimates I'm using a conservative 24 million BTU's @ 80% efficiency. I try not to overstate things.
Applachaian soft coal for power plants is going to be around 24 million too, on the lower end coal from the Powder River Basin out west is something like 18 million. That coal however is very low sulfur and easily mined.
Batteries can be pretty cheap. You can spend less than $100 per battery. For 8 batteries, that would be less than $800. Compared to the solar panels or wind turbines, that is pretty cheap.
If you have batteries, you can become your own utility!
That's true, but, the batteries do not last forever, and to get reasonable life out of them, they need periodic topping up of water (distilled, not tap!) at least.
I remember all the maintenance that the submarine type batteries at S1W prototype required. Or at least the Navy thought they needed it.
Not saying batteries or wind/solar is a bad deal. Depends on where you are and how you handle it. But as you say, you do "become your own utility" to a large degree, and that means you have rather expensive equipment that you will need to be familiar with and take care of.
That's true, but, the batteries do not last forever, and to get reasonable life out of them, they need periodic topping up of water (distilled, not tap!) at least.
I remember all the maintenance that the submarine type batteries at S1W prototype required. Or at least the Navy thought they needed it.
Not saying batteries or wind/solar is a bad deal. Depends on where you are and how you handle it. But as you say, you do "become your own utility" to a large degree, and that means you have rather expensive equipment that you will need to be familiar with and take care of.
On subs, the ICmen check the battery fluid levels weekly. When a sub battery dies replacing it becomes a massive undertaking.
On the off-grid forums that I post on, the general consensus is that most people will see their first battery-bank die between 5 and 10 years of use. They will commonly ignore the batteries for months at a time, on their first set. After replacing their first battery-bank, and the pain of paying for them, and the pain of physically moving those huge beasts around, is when owners finally understand how important it is to do routine maintenance on their batteries. The second battery-banks are the batteries that last their full expected life-span.
...most people will see their first battery-bank die between 5 and 10 years of use. They will commonly ignore the batteries for months at a time, on their first set. After replacing their first battery-bank, and the pain of paying for them, and the pain of physically moving those huge beasts around, is when owners finally understand how important it is to do routine maintenance on their batteries. The second battery-banks are the batteries that last their full expected life-span.
Amen, and Amen!
Now you can see why I am so hopeful for the Tesla lithium batteries! I know the technology is there, for a lightweight, compact, plug-n-play, no-maintenance battery that will last 20 years, and can be discharged down 90% of capacity. Tesla's not there yet, but hey - at least they announced the battery! They will continue to improve it over time. Meanwhile, I have 7-10 years left on my first 2 banks, to wait!
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