How do we use as little power as possible, without turning into monks?
Use fluorescent or led-lighting. I have a nice little gadget the I can plug into the power socket, and read how much watt all devices on that socket drain. Then, I wrote, with a permanent marker, on every device what it costs in watt to have it on. That made me a lot more aware of what was costing met power. I also try to keep a close eye on my power meter. That is normal behavior, I hope, for people who try to make their own power. If more people would try to make their own power, they at least will never consume as much as before.
So we have a couple of filled batteries. How do we safely empty them? How do we monitor the amount of power left in them? If we have a lot of full batteries hanging around, and we don't know what to do with the surplus of energy, we should consider to connect to grid
