In the summer, the solar panels generate 60 percent more electricity than the super-insulated house needs. The excess is stored in the form of hydrogen which is used in the winter -- when the solar panels can't meet all the domestic demand -- to make electricity in the fuel cell. Strizki also uses the hydrogen to power his fuel-cell driven car, which, like the domestic power plant, is pollution-free.
Solar power eliminates utility bills in U.S. home | Tech&Sci | Technology | Reuters.com The other way around is also interesting, I hear a cold start is very expensive keeping an engine running for nothing is also expensive, powering up your house with it seems just as possible as having electricity and hot water on a boat or caravan or camper. Could use the leftover heat to pre warm the boiler, or adapt the engine to generate as much hot watter as you need.
Systems like file sharing and torrents have already proven that user to user distribution is far superior to an utilities company. Only 1 car in the block needs to be at home for the whole block to have hot water.
The superiority of such system becomes evident when you imagine a disaster or a war. Then we would have a system that does not fail us when we need it most.