On May 7, 2015, at 6:59 PM, Shawn Reeves <[email protected]> wrote:
> Everyone should know it should be considered kooky to try to heat your home > using PV. So that straw man should not be made. I am doing exactly this at my house. It’s reasonably cost effective to use heat pumps to heat a house now, and reasonably cost effective (net of subsidies) to supply electricity from one’s own solar, so this is readily feasible to heat a house with PV (on a grid-tied net basis). It takes some space for that much solar, however, so not likely to be viable downtown. Needless to say, the Tesla battery is nowhere near large enough to get through the winter production lulls in such a situation so it doesn’t make a lot of sense for me. Nonetheless, Tesla has apparently sold out the first six months of production, so it must make sense to someone somewhere (I’m guessing commercial operations where it allows arbitrage between peak and off-peak rates). > The sun will gladly heat your home directly if you let it in. It’s certainly true that passive solar design is an excellent option for new construction in suitable locations. However, most of the buildings with which we must meet climate change are already existing, and usually poorly suited to passive solar, so other options are required too. Best, Stuart. For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ If you have questions about this list please contact the list manager, Tom Shelley, at [email protected].
