I'd like to see some experimentation with "micro" levels of residential electric service.

[hunter]

4. What's ridiculous?

My great grandma lived in a house with two forty watt light bulbs and a radio.

There was no point in having a television, there were no local broadcasters and VCRs, DVDs, and satellite TV didn't exist.

Electricity was nice. She didn't have to buy oil for her lovely old Aladdin lamps, but she kept them around for power failures.

Obviously, you are not going to cook food or heat your shower with such a limited electric supply, but it's plenty enough to keep your gadgets charged and a few lights on.

Even though I don't live with minimal electric use now (but I have) I think it's an interesting baseline to measure my own consumerism against.

I can't convince my wife to get rid of the refrigerator, and I like our electric coffee maker... etc. We cook with gas, so that wouldn't be a problem.

With the human population earth has now a consumer society like ours cannot be supported by renewable energy sources. Something is going to break, probably the climate. I do not believe a consumer society like ours is a requirement for human happiness, it is in fact the source of much misery.