On Fri, Feb 23, 2007 at 11:08:12AM -0800, dooger watts wrote: > Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2007 11:08:12 -0800 > From: dooger watts <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: Eugene Unix and Gnu/Linux User Group <euglug@euglug.org> > Subject: Re: [Eug-lug] OT -- electric car > > LinuxRocks! wrote: > > >I talked with someone last summer, and he has successfully converted his > >house to solar, and it has paid well. but it took a lot of fanagleing to > >make it pay off... stuff like tax incentives, grants, and returning > >power to the grid (he gets paid for excess electricity). He still uss > >electricity from the grid, so he isnt completely self sustained. He > >worked it all out very well, and i think it took him less than 5 years > >to figure it all out, and get it working and paid for. I think he siad > >he ends up paying like $50/year to the electric company. In some places > >solar works realy really well... but oregon isnt the best for solar, but > >clearly, it can work. > > Hope he did it himself. Was outraged at the recent green home show, at > the fairgrounds. The solar "developers" there were all over about how > Oregon is perfect for solar--gets more sun than Germany, which is the > number one solar-powered nation on earth. > > But when you got a load of what they charged, your jaw dropped. These > dogs wanted more than thirty thousand bux to make your home electric. > And they had all these gee-whiz graphs and charts to show you how the > cost of investing in solar would pay for itself in--get this--"TWENTY TO > THIRTY YEARS." > > New technologies are always expensive--but goddam, where do these sharks > get off? Originally, solar technology was NOT so over-valued--and > usually it was a do-it-yourself proposition. > > S'pose there's gotta be predators ready to exploit--and we Oregonians, > with our hipper-than-thou smug, seem ripe for plunder. > > Got plans for a solar shower that's made of black ABS pipe. Total cost > less than twenty bucks. Remember the ole hippy saw, "people's prices?"
Yeah, infact I think solar heating water is probably pretty easy compared to generating enough electricity to run a home. I know someone that made one with a 5 galon clear plastic water container (cubeish) sitting on top of a black plastic bag on the roof of his treehouse (and a sweet little tree house it was... had its own tiny wood stove and 20' deck! anyway I know personally that the shower works very good in the summer. I dont remember all the details, but i think he spent about 20k and did it all himself, and he also did a lot of research and probably worked every possible angle to make it affordable. He also had some neet panels mounted on fixtures that kept the panel at optimal angle (using a very simple device with a photocell, and some small motors to move the panel to keep the panel facing the sun). It makes the panel into kind of a mechanical sunflower, that produces electicity :) hey? how about hydrogen powered generaters for our homes ? prolly too expensive right now, but if hydrogen cars were common... and the fuel was inexpensive enough... Jamie > _______________________________________________ > EUGLUG mailing list > euglug@euglug.org > http://www.euglug.org/mailman/listinfo/euglug _______________________________________________ EUGLUG mailing list euglug@euglug.org http://www.euglug.org/mailman/listinfo/euglug
