Self-reliant House
 

A Friend of mine sent me this article. It's rather nifty, if you ask me. Although the intial investment is high ($22,000 for this guy) I think the long term payoff is a great one. This is especially true considering the price of fossil fuels has no place to go but up.

https://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2004/12/03/grid.html