[ELGo]

Originally Posted by Ryland

I like to think long term,

at what point are you going to get lazy and stop turning off the power strip

Reasonable question. For me at least, it is a matter of habit. I don't think about turning stuff off

or unplugging the device

I do notice if something is running and not being used.

or get tired of not having a working door bell.

Around the time my visitors are unable to knock.

My wife and I are contrasts here, and she probably matches your description of someone who, absent my nagging, would quickly revert to wasteful habits. E.g., any space she enters into she pretty much automatically turns on a light. She has to think about turning the light off. I turn on a light if it is too dark LOL. I'm hopeful that her auto behaviour will change, but it has been ingrained for a long time.

So I wonder about matching your house's standby demand with grid tied PV and a micro inverter, even if you have an electric meter that can't run backwards a very small PV system that was designed to stall your electric meter would work great!

I don't really have any desire to offset a kwh used for one purpose vs another purpose. Clean energy is good. Period.

My local circumstances pretty much dictate for now that any clean energy I generate will be off-site from my home. I avidly follow the emerging PV co-op movement in CA and now in CO, and you can bet I will be one of first to sign up when possible in my state. I also keep pretty close track of the investment scene for clean energy, and am always on the lookout for opportunities to develop clean energy that returns 4% over inflation. I will put a sizeable fraction of my retirement savings into that sort of venture. I like windmills as much or more than PV/thermal, but in the US co-op wind seems even less likely. Too bad, really.

None of the above dissuades me from energy conservation, which I view as synergistic with clean energy production. Let me put it this way: Whether a kWh is not used, or a kWh generated cleanly, that is one less kWh generated from coal -- hopefully. Certainly as clean energy is able to provide an ever increasing fraction of the demand, the support for coal will diminish. The day when coal is not needed is still far, far away. The day when clean energy is in EXCESS, and EVs become a vehicle for clean transport -- even further away.

I try to do my part to hasten the arrival of a fossil-fuel free society. So to answer your question, my flip switching behavior is unlikely to change.