C N Sangodkar of Saurab Marketing in Guirim (9422 441835 or
225 4379) claims the Sintex solution offers "a large range
of solar water heaters available to suit every need".They say: "Most houses with 3 square metres of clear space on the roof with adequate direct sunlight and bathrooms within a 30 metre distance, to reduce plumbing costs and initial wastage of water are suitable for a solar water heater installation."
When I visited Divar recently, early UK-returned expat Mario Fernandes proudly showed his deployment of solar energy, not just for water heating but also for lighting at the home. Admitted, it's still costlier, but much more reliable and, Mario says, once the initial investment is made, one can gain a lot. You don't have to depend on the undependable electricity department either! "There's a subsidy from the government too," as Mario pointed out.
It would still be costly, compared to the mainstream alternative. But this need not be the only consideration. For instance, it might be cheaper to just depend on the government supply of water, but as Mario pointed out, he actually spent a hundred thousand rupees to dig a 40-haat (one 'haat' is roughly from your finger-tip till your elbow) well, with skilled artisans coming in from nearby districts of Karnataka.
Of course, being a non-specialist in this field, one would not
know which solution works best and how effectively. Could anyone
having an experience with solar-energy *as it works in Goa*
give further insights into this topic?FN
_____ _/ ____\____ Frederick Noronha * Freelance Journalist * Goa \ __\/ \ India T +91.832.2409490 M +919822 122436 | | | | \ http://fn.swiki.net http://goabooks.swiki.net |__| |___| / http://www.bytesforall.net http://www.bytesforall.org \/ ----------------------------------------------------- Sign up for low-volume, high-quality news summaries and updates from Goa at http://newsfromgoa.swiki.net * It's free and volunteer-driven.
