What would be in it for marine vendors? Cutting boatings carbon footprint? Hmm, not likely if you're also a vendor for power boats. How about the marine environment? Might be in the future anyway so why wouldn't the more progressive companies get onboard first?

I've converted 99% of my home lighting to LEDs because of Me. bulb rebates. Instant rebates have bulbs at $4 and under. I replaced more than a dozen strings of mini Xmas lights to LED. We use them a lot year-round for decoration and lighting( I have a receptacle in the ceiling to plug in whatever we feel like hanging from some ceiling areas-like this kitchen work area). Bottom line is so appealing; 15% of the power used by incadescents, 20+ years life(that alone should be enough!) for 4 bucks.

Other rebates made investment affordable changing our energy usage this year; $500 Me. rebate on a heat-pump(+fed tax credit). More incentives on hybrid water heaters, pellet stoves, and on for home owners. I've looked into panels but even with rebates, the pay back is still too long to make financial sense(will they come down more?). Still, These initiatives will have an effect on usage.

I took these photos on Xmas, a heavy power use day. We used the whole house(usually we turn off the back half for winter-ping pong on Xmas!) and had quests and family all day.

All lighting is LED in these photos. We had a lot of light! 1000+ mini LEDs were supplying much of the festive lighting for the party, even on the roof.

So what does it cost to light yourself up like a Christmas tree? I never knew, until now; Our electric meter is wifi connected to the power company and I can access actual power used. Yearly-monthly-daily, even drill down hourly. It's fascinating to figure out why you have the blips of usage. Then you see your habits.

We're power hogs, I admit, but even on this heavy use day, mostly below the average(dashed line) user of our size household and appliances. Standard elec. water heater(running much of the day-showers,dishes, etc), one electric bath heater. Any heat we used was by the heat pump(it was warm). Christmas power total; $4.73 But the real value in this new service is helping me see where our power goes, and how to conserve. We're already below last years usage, and falling...

So who would pay for the rebates to equip our boats with LED's, more efficient refrigeration, solar panels, etc???