When the new generation of electric cars were unveiled five or six years ago, I was excited to divorce myself from ever buying gasoline again.

I know that the car still burns energy from the electricity needed to keep the battery charged, but the money spent in the long run is so much less compared to a fuel combustion engine.

Some of my friends who are major car fanatics thought I was crazy. They like to scoff at electric cars and the push towards energy independence in general. It didn’t matter what my friends were thinking about my decisions because I decided to purchase an electric car regardless. The savings in gas every week are enormous. Granted, the amount of recharge stations is still limited across the country, but for city driving this car is perfect. One more recharge stations are built on highways around the country, I can finally take my electric car on road trips. I simply love the idea of emerging technology designed to save money on energy fees. It could be the case of owning an electric car, or having a heat pump in your home. Heat pumps are great for heating and cooling because they utilize a fraction of the energy depleted by a standard split style HVAC system. Instead of using refrigerant to cool the air in the house, it simply draws indoor heat into the system and expels it outdoors. It can reverse the process to warm a cold house as it harvests ambient heat from outdoors. Some heat pumps come with an additional heating element to provide additional heat if the temperatures outdoors are too low for the normal process.

Electric fireplace