I have to take issue with your assessment. If you look at the power consumption of stationary power tools, it is almost irrelevant in comparison to the material cost of building nice furniture. For example, you can surface plane more rough sawn 4/4 material to 3/4 in 10 minutes than it takes to complete most furniture projects. Assuming a 240V, 15A planer, the electricity would cost around 6 cents in most locations. On the other hand, it would take days to plane that much lumber by hand. The cost of heating a shop in winter for several days is huge by comparison. There are good reasons to use hand tools only but saving money isn't one of them.