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Posted on Apr. 12, 2007
Channel 41, NBC, Kansas City
Can Going Green Save You Greenbacks?
NBC Action News decided to find out if going green can save homeowners money. And who better to ask than those living in a community where energy efficiency is now a crusade.
Plenty of people have heard a famous frog say before it isn't easy being green. But going green - the choice to be environmentally conscious - has been easy for some living north of the metro. People there convinced an energy giant to change a plan to increase pollution and in the process are finding their own path to cleaner climate. But is it really a less expensive lifestyle?
A new kind of passion blossomed in Susan Brown's life three and a half years ago. She says it was because of her children and a big neighbor 10 miles down the road who wanted to expand.
"For me, it was all about health concerns for my family in the very beginning," Brown says. "That was about three and half years ago."
She realized Kansas City Power and Light had plans to expand the old smokestack known as the Iatan Power Plant near the bluffs of the Missouri River.
"It was a big deal," she says. "My kids were young."
Three years later, she and others in a grassroots effort stalled construction and convinced KCP&L to rely more on the abundant, cost efficient, pollutant free power known as the wind.
Today, the Iatan is the most environmentally friendly power plant in the country. Generating part of customers' electricity through wind farms in northern Missouri and far western Kansas.
In her effort to help others Brown says she has ultimately helped herself. She and many of her neighbors have gone green.
"There it is, isn't that great," she says. "It's like Christmas, brand new technology that's great, cheap and free electricity!"
And it is nothing to yawn about, Brown's new $2,000 solar panel will burn away a third of her monthly electric bill. And it will pay her back for the expense of the panel in four to six years.
Store owners say the number of people trying to reduce their energy costs is on the rise.
Brown is neighbor to one of the greenest houses in the country. The state-of-the-art home uses 70 percent less energy than a typical home its size.
The house has metal siding, a cement chimney, solar panels, environmentally friendly florescent bulbs and a wind turbine. That efficiency sometimes has KCP&L paying them back for electricity. However, not everyone can go to this extent and critics say it is expensive. But, the EPA says switching one conventional incandescent bulb, while the initially cost is four times the cost of a green florescent bulb, can move a homeowner's electric bill from $21 a year to $5.25 a year. The EPA also says replacing a 10-year-old fridge for a new one can save $35 less a year in reduced energy. Programmable thermostats set by the power company can save $150 a year. Ceiling fans can save a family up to $200 a season. And wash clothes with cold water costs 1.5 cents versus 38 cents for hot water.
The less energy used, KCP&L says the less energy and emissions it has to produce.
"When you think of the sun, the sun comes up and sets everyday," says Bob Solger, the Energy Saving Store. "A tremendous amount of energy is delivered."
And Brown says it is a tremendous legacy to leave the people who energized her to change in the first place -- her children.
So critics say the price to go green, from bulbs to new windows, will cost more up front. Yet once paid off, it can save one's electric bills in the future.
Anyone wanting to take a tour of Weston's state-of-the-art energy free home can visit their website for more information: http://missouri.sierraclub.org/thb/green-home-tour/tickets.asp.
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