Ken SchreinerSolar Power Changing My Life and the World; But Can It Change Utah?
It’s another Ozone Red Alert day here on the Wasatch Front. It’s now been almost three months since I installed a 2 kWh, ten-PV panel, sun-tracking solar power system in my backyard. Some of you may have even watched the video of its installation: a series titled “Harvesting the Sun” on my website schreinervideo.com. When I undertook this project, most people thought it was noble but admitted they wouldn’t or couldn’t afford to do it themselves. Some scoffed: one “energy expert” who happens to be a helpful relative says the system was enough to “power a toaster oven.”
I won’t waste your time with the story of how it was built- watch the video on the website. After building it, we wanted to install a bi-directional electric meter to sell our excess power back to the grid. Besides getting permits, inspections, zoning and building variances from the SLC governments, we had to ask our neighbors to sign their approval. All of them were enthusiastic in their support. Now, we’re just one step away from being full-fledged energy providers: although we only get .05 cents per kilowatt hour compared to the power company’s .07.
We’ve just gotten through Utah’s cloudiest months (March through May) and we’re now in prime sun season. So how’s it working? Check the graphic above. The chart is from Thursday June 14. The green bars are for solar production. The yellow line is power consumption. It was a hot day where we ran the swamp cooler through the afternoon (we don’t need to turn it on until it’s 85 outside), all my computers were on as usual because I work at home and my wife was also home working on the computer and doing normal chores. Not only was my unidentified relative wrong. We produce as much power as the installing company, In Hot Water of Eden, Utah, said we would. We watch TV, run the dishwasher, air conditoner or swamp cooler and do all the things “normal” households do. Only we’re doing it all off our solar panels. At night, the batteries in the Gridpoint solar management system (the size of a small clothes dryer), also charged by the solar panels, provide all the power we need. There’s a switch on the Gridpoint that allows us to go back to the grid if it’s cloudy for extended periods of time. But Utah is one of the sunniest states in the country: two-thirds of our days are totally sunny or partly sunny.
Have we changed our lifestyles because of solar power? Yes- all for the better. We try to do more household chores like laundry, dishwashing, cooking and dehydrating foods during the day when the panels are powering the house and we’re not draining the batteries. We now know how much power each of our appliances uses because it shows up on the Gridpoint LED: coffee maker up to 1.2 kWh is a hog, TV is .3, swamp cooler .5, air conditioner .8. My entire home studio (which by the way is the only totally solar-powered video production facility in the world!) takes .6 kWh.
The only thing that makes me feel bad about solar or other forms of renewable energy is they’re not affordable for everyone. We saved for two years for our system. It’s up to our political and business leaders to help make it affordable to everyone. Governor Huntsman is becoming a leader in renewable, non-polluting energy schemes for Utah. But he’ll have a tough time battling the paid-off, brainwashed legislators who’ve successfully blocked development of Utah’s renewable energy industry to protect the deep-pocketed, entrenched oil, natural gas, and coal interests. New technological developments happen every day to drive down the cost of renewable energy and other states like California and Maryland are leading the nation in innovative legislation to bring green power to more of its citizens. (BTW: don’t expect the feds to do anything until Bush finally evacuates).
Utah not only has a great opportunity right now to develop its own alternative energy industry. It has the urgent need to given our accelerating population growth and subsequent rapidly-worsening air pollution crisis. Groups like the Utah Solar Energy Association are growing fast and gaining clout with governments and the power monopolies. But this next session of the Utah legislature will be a turning point in the history of our state. Will we take advantage of an excellent economic opportunity at a time when our citizens and the entire world need decisive action? Or will we accept the bribes of Big Oil and the power monopolies even as they take the money back from us through arbitrarily increased prices and rates?
The choice is ours. Solar power, like other renewable energy sources, work. The responsibility for solving the problems of human-induced climate change, pollution now lies not with the scientists, entrepreneurs and pioneers who have proved the viability of existing systems. It lies with our so-called leaders and those of us who don’t want to change our lives, period- preferring to die and kill our children in our own, unending and unnecessary waste.
June 16th, 2007 at 8:16 am
Ken; Sounds great. Over in Colorado there is a State program that will pay for 50% of the cost of applying solar power to your energy needs. You do have to come up with the money up front, and a later reimbursed by the State. It is working well, and there is a veritable boom in the solar industry over there.
Do you have a thermal component to your system? Rather a water heater. These are very simple to build, and can easily provide all your hot water needs, from laundry, and showering, to even keeping a hot tub up to snuff. One can also heat with it if big enough, especially in Utah.
Keep on doing it. Apart from the forward looking Colorado program, people setting this up, is what it will take. Get the program running in Utah, nah burn coal instead.
In Germany the solar boom is so great the government has come to practically giving them away(panels)
June 16th, 2007 at 8:57 am
I’ve heard of the Colorado program and am envious and mad at the same time. All we got was a measly $2,000 rebate from Utah and the feds each. No real incentives for “ordinary folk.” The local bureaucracies here are also clueless as to what to do with these systems. Every program they promote is a product of the Grid Monsters. We’re still wading through SLC to get a bi-directional meter with little help from Rocky Mountain Power who seem to have been caught by surprise by renewable energy. As for the legislature, the article in today’s Trib says it all. I write a lot about Germany, Spain, Japan and every other country in the world, what they’re doing and what we’re not doing. Check it out at http://schreinervideo.blogspot.com. The U.S., with help from our Fearless Leader, looks like a Third World backwater when it comes to energy technology. We are holding out on solar thermal for those new 40% efficient PV panels.
June 16th, 2007 at 9:53 am
Whether or not we can trust Governor Huntsman, as Ken says it’s the right idea to move forward on the state level. No matter which party controls the White House, lets’ not expect the federal government to go very fast on alternate energy.
That said, let me give some credit to our public land agencies. The last time I went south, I camped at Natural Bridges National Monument. The Natural Bridges visitor center is far off the grid, and has been powered by photovoltaic cells for 27 years. They have a nifty interactive display that demonstrates the technology.
On the way back north, we swung by the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry, where my wife and I both worked for the BLM in 1989. Back then, we had a cranky (literally– it started with a hand crank!) propane-powered generator to run a swamp cooler. I usually didn’t bother with it except on the very hottest days. The newly-renovated CLDQ visitor center has solar panels on the roof.
Since the Natural Bridges pilot project, the cost of solar power has come down drastically. Even the BLM can afford it now!
June 16th, 2007 at 10:34 am
Ken to give you an idea of how simple thermals can be, in Vermont at an inn my family owned, the pool was heated by an array of thermals consisting of baseboard heating radiators, enclosed in old Vermont single pane windows. The baseboards we’re painted black, as was the bas of the enclosed box they we’re contained in. It heated the pool to nice comfort with an electric circulation pump. In Vermont, it was a full size pool, and 10 ft. deep at the deep end. It was constructed by the former owner in 1974.
By and large it was made of JUNK!.
Also track down Mr. Solar on the web. He lives on Smith Mesa I believe outside of Zion park, east of it. I bought a panel off him 6 years ago. Beautiful place. He heats his indoor pool with glass cased, you guessed it, radiators that look an awful lot like baseboard hot water radiators. There really isn’t much new under the sun.
June 16th, 2007 at 1:40 pm
Glenn: I agree there’s not much new with solar except efficiency and cost- huge nonetheless. I’m all for thermals. Thanks for the tips. My point is I think it’s time the American people stopped believing solar and other alternatives are not legitimate, researched or proved, as the oil and coal companies say, and government started helping implement them on a massive scale. Only government, a la Civilian Conservation Corps and other large Depression-style programs, can make it happen quickly through subsidization and easing of legal/technical restrictions. The free market is too slow and profit-driven, though there’s nothing wrong with that. Bush could’ve spent $4 billion more deploying solar panels. Instead, he’s spending it on keeping immigrants out. Loser in Iraq, loser in America. Loser, loser, loser.
June 16th, 2007 at 3:43 pm
Yes Ken the misdirection is to make other people money. For example outsourcing, we have been told it is good to do this, as it helps china, and makes more profits. What isn’t told is it may not be Americans making the profits,unless you buy stocks in the maggoty company that do it.
bush has increased the number of legal H1-B visas every year he has been in office, so I don’t know where you get your facts. Illegal aliens are not immigrants Ken, they are Federal criminals. Just you try what illegals currently do in the countries they come from. It is beyond ridiculous. As for cliff, he has told me in his words that it isn’t his responsibility to check SS# in a business he was once partner in. He is sure some were illegal, yet he and his brother do not care. It was and still is. The employer is responsible for determining this. Any suspicion that the this is the case for an employee, would require a search on the validity of the applicant. Federal Law and all.
As a naturalized American who swore the Oath and did it legally, the people here are simple interlopers in an economy run by criminals. You hire them. you are a criminal. 25,000 dollar fine in Colorado now for each illegal employed by a person.
Lot’s of good ideas coming out of Colorado, not just solar. It is one of the 5 states in the US that passes legislation that becomes social policy. Look for this to come your state. The majority want immigration laws UPHELD!!
Allowing illegals a pass is just a form of domestic outsourcing, another thing Cliff has done, whilst these people are paid some 30 cents an hour in china. This however is sadly legal. i am an unapologetic protectionist. We need badly. Mexico needs fixing, we are not their human dumping ground.
June 16th, 2007 at 3:55 pm
I should’ve prefaced my post by saying I care about illegal immigration but that’s not what this post is about. For the record, I mildly agree with you. But are American taxpayers really going to go for coughing up another $4 billion in border defense when we can’t even afford to fight a good war in Iraq? More proof the White House continues to take this country in WRONNNNNGGGG direction.
June 16th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
If ostensibly there is a war on terror, then the southern and northern border are ridiculously defended. Let’s get bush where he lives. No one can seriously believe in terrorism as bush describes it and have a border in which 4-5 thousand people a day traverse in contravention of Federal law. There is no terror so how does he continue to justify the war? How do the dems?
No matter the perceived benefit, the Rule of Law is being trashed by illegal aliens. When my wife tried to live here permanently she was disallowed, as her job description in her H-1b visa was “unclear”. We even had a child here, and at the time I was a German national. I could not sponsor her, and white girl that she is, our baby couldn’t keep her here either. She yold flat out by immigration that my son an American could stay, while she had to leave the country within 72 hours.
Thankfully Tom Tancredo promised to ais us, and when apprised of this fact they were very conciliatory. The whole system is bullshit designed by criminals that wish to profit from what is the 21st century equivalent of slave labor. Not to mention what the presence of illegasl in our economy does to the American wage scale.
As for cliff, he is hypocrite, as he has profited from the very thing that is destroying this country, and causing many people to work longer hours, without benefits, this is the result of having this anathema in our midst. NO AMNESTY!!PERIOD!!
Do you make rules for children and break them because it makes for a more peaceful household? I don’t think so, and breaking the law, and being caught at it shall be applied EQUALLY!! Isn’t this what all here want for bush, cheney, scooter et al? Won’t you all be outraged when scooter is pardoned? Illegal immigration amnesty is the SAME DAMN THING, and it is foreigners breaking our laws. Gimme a break!
June 16th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
Perhaps we can hire illegals to power treadmills to generate power, getting back on topic.
The prospect of large scale thermal transfer utilizing a heat pump system has amazing possibilities given that The Great Salt Lake gets VERY warm during summer months, one would need only circulate through heat exchangers to reap the heat that is available.
The same could be done in areas of the desert. All a heat pump system applied to thermal energy in the ground is really just a modified solar system.
June 16th, 2007 at 8:37 pm
Whoever you are Glenn, you sound pretty self absorbed. It would seem you see the world through the lens of Glenn.
So you are legal now and everyone else should be shut out. What about when you were illegal? Have you paid US back? Do you pay taxes now?
I know your type. Narcissist rich foreigner perhaps? Here to save us all with your incisive wisdom over meandering observation and loose connections founded on narrow intolerance
Let me go out on a limb here and guess that you speak without accent and live in the margins of society.
True?
June 16th, 2007 at 9:05 pm
Oh, uh huh,… cliff, go fuck off. Only you would spell my name with two n’s, and capitalize it to boot. All wrong. It’s all you.
Me rich? You gotta know better, if you ‘aint cliff, welcome to your world of mis-perception. Pretty obvious you don’t have a clue.
If you are cliff, then you are rich, available from international business at labor rates of 30 cents an hour, and every bit truly republican, thought the patina of democrat fools most.
As a known liar, here, at ASP, any blog, or letter writing campaign where you have mis-represented yourself as a bleeding heart liberal in person, it is fun to watch your pathetic machinations. Loserlike to say the least. Good job though in a losers effort.
June 16th, 2007 at 9:25 pm
Excuse me Glenn, Is your name not spelled with 2 n’s as Passerby spelt’r?
How much have you had to drink tonight? And why, in view of your passionate concern for justice and punishment for the ills of the world, are you so hell-bent on attacking me?
You may judge me by my actions if you need a strong grip on reality. For those of us with little evidence to support our earnest desire for change, words are just drivel (alcohol lubricated, emotional drivel).
Wipe your chin and go to bed.
June 16th, 2007 at 10:51 pm
Cuz’ you are a hypocritical loser…and it’s fun. That’s why.
You can’t helplessly defend yourself from the inside of a wet paper bag. As for drinking, it isn’t me that does shots of bag wine for a buzz before social events. I am a tee totaler these days.
Have you not accepted what it is, you truly are? Bogus muttha fuck!
June 17th, 2007 at 8:11 am
Thanks, guys for ruining my post. Typical of environmental discussions. They all turn back to politics instead of the real issue.
June 17th, 2007 at 9:05 am
Ken - I work for a wholesale electrical distributor which has wanted to stock the components for solar and install them in our facilities. The manufacturers t0ld us that there is a two year waiting list for commmercial solar panels. They essentially told us they’d put our name on their list and get back to us. Needless to say, management is frustrated but also impressed that the demand is such that manufacturers can’t keep up.
I’m also told by our corporate management that the newer solar systems are vastly improved over what they used to be - in the “olden days” of the 70s, solar was essentially a giant mirror in someone’s yard, the storage systems weren’t efficient, and the power produced was nominal.
June 17th, 2007 at 9:44 am
Ken,
I must apologize. I should have known challenging Glenn would get him going.
I wish I could get off the grid too. My house is a tear down. SO anything i do would have to be removed and reset again.
Why did you not put the panels on your roof?
June 17th, 2007 at 10:45 am
Glenden: the problem with supply and demand again is the United States is that we are reacting too late to something that’s been coming for years now. Germany, Japan, Spain are way ahead of the game. U.S. plays catch up again, both business and government, increasing the price, the roll-out and implementation. You’re right: PVs are more efficient now and will probably be even more so in just a couple of years.
Cliff: we had a situation in our yard that accomodated the installation of tracking devices on the panels so they would follow the sun all day and produce more energy than simply placing panels on the roof. I’m trying to determine how much a difference it makes but the installers told me it’s significant. According to SLC Commission, there’s also the issue of reflection into your neighbors’ eyes. With roof panels, there will be reflection that needs to be approved before construction. With a tracking system, there’s no problem because the panels always reflect the sun right back at it.
June 17th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
Actually Ken, you got it going with his reference to bushs’ weak kneed attempts to control immigration. If you are an advocate for illegal immigration and the disasters that accompany it, you should be a full on bush supporter. He has done absolutely nothing to curb the problem, all the while terrorizing the American people by claiming Al Quedas’ gonna get us!
Meanwhile the illegals come 4-5 k a day, and not just to lower American wage scale, but with gangs, drugs, and an interesting penchant for driving, uninsured, unlicensed vehicles while drunk.
The Rocky Mountain west tolerates the latino invasion as they are broke as a joke, and revel in the exploitation of those that come here. It’s all good. The only State in the Rocky mtn west that pays it’s own way is Nevada.
Certainly this crisis of immigration will be sorted out by the east coast that have much lower tolerance for it, because they are paying for it!
Ken, of course environmental issues come to politics, what else will decide how our “energy crisis” will be solved. No corporate entity wants you to be making your own power, anymore than they want you making bio-diesel, or any other alternative to their cash cow.
Cliff has been living in his “tear down” so long, it may fall down, so if this is the commitment we get from those who advocate such things as alternative power, and you spent 38k on your system, this change does not seem to be coming to Utah at least any time soon. Good job doing it on your own.
June 17th, 2007 at 2:45 pm
What crises [of immigration]?
Show me the crises, then rank it against the others, like war, heath care, poverty, poor education, pending economic collapse, national debt, personal debt, energy crises, corporate corruption and greed, environmental sustainability, clean drinking water. What did I miss?
As for Mexicans? I like’em. Actually, I prefer them to the all those self-proclaimed American patriots who feed off of farm subsidies and the exploitation of those immigrants.
Show me the crises Glenn.
June 17th, 2007 at 4:03 pm
Well Cliff in Southern California so many hospitals have closed due to unpaid medical bill there is a stretch of over 120 miles that has no emergency rooms. As illegal aliens pay no bill and a federally mandated care, it has come to the point that boards of hospitals have simply opted to close down their emergency rooms. It is part of the health care crisis. This is only a single example, but consider strapped social services, and the education system as well. These are some, educate yourself at alipac.us.
I do not expect a state, or people in it that basically live off Federal largess to see the crises, it is very acute in those states that get negative federal funds for their tax dollars.
The worst of it though is the degradation of the Rule of Law, and all the related malfeasance that relates to nobody obeying the law. How can you rail againsat illegal wars and not see that what bush is doing is only part and parcel of the lawlessness that greats you every time an illegal alien crosses the border.
Have you ever seen what the border area looks like? It is a dump, and those coming cannot possibly have due respect for the environment. Up here WA, the woods are full of trash from illegal workers cutting brush and cedar rounds, and on and on. The mushroom grounds have literally been raked by these ignorant peoples desire for cash. Most are already on the social assistance, and in turn pay no taxes any income they do make.
Educate yourself, if it wasn’t problem the State of Colorado would not have applied a 25,000 dollar fine to those that hire illegals. 25,000 for each one employed.
Then there is the demographic considerations but that I will go into later. I do believe I have described the oncoming concerns in another post.
June 17th, 2007 at 4:10 pm
Oh yeah, then there is the whole identity theft racket, as these people need someone elses SS# to work. It is one of the main reasons illegals steal cars. Contained within your paperwork is often your SS#. Two birds with one stone, short term transportation, and a fraudulent SS#.
Of course the current meth scourge on the west coast has been traced to the mexican mob, fully armed thugs that utilize illegals to mule and deal. How much more do you want Cliff? Anyone interested in the real facts, of what this is costing the taxpayer can get them at ALIPAC.US, Americans for legal immigration political action committee.
June 17th, 2007 at 6:49 pm
Curiously, many recent battlegrounds have been reclaimed by Nature and are now teeming with wildlife. Examples: along the former boundary between East and West Germany, and the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. Even the meadows around Chernobyl are home to a growing number of old and new species, though experts say they won’t live long there. Walls and other human-created, unnatural boundaries can produce such unexpected results but it takes a few years. Unfortunately, the wall between Mexico and the U.S. is currently succeeding more at keeping animals out of their migratory patterns than Mexicans out of our country. Another $4 billion to keep deer out of Texas? Doesn’t sound like much of a bargain to me.
June 17th, 2007 at 7:04 pm
The “fence” is not to keep people out, it is to create deterrents to passing in certain areas, and the result is that the criminal that seeks entry will be forced in a narrower gauntlet where it is much easier to interdict them with manpower Ken. I’m all for it.
Works for Israel doesn’t it?
I was once offered a job down in Arizona. A man offered a home on his property a pickup, and a new gun every 6 months, plus 3k a month. He is a rancher I met in GJ CO. He claimed to have had half his herd killed and butchered by illegal aliens that were “passing through” on their way up to an economic opportunity, be that actual work, or simple largess, or both, without paying taxes. The job was to keep them off his ranch. Given that many were muling meth, I declined he said he did not expect me to confront them, my presence alone would force them elsewhere. This is the idea behind a proper fence.
I don’t think most are really aware of the problems extent, and what is coming along with those that just want a” better life”. Don’t we all? When someones better life concept reduces our own, that is no go for me. Only the employers benefit. The simple math of reduced taxes due to wage reduction is actual and demonstrable.
This fiasco is costing taxpayers billions. It’s like the war. There is no benefit to the policy.
June 18th, 2007 at 6:09 am
Works for Israel?
Are you completely nuts?
Only in a blog could one get away with making that comparison. No room to get laughed out of.
But the more salacious argument is the cost of emergency room care. The cost of uninsured Americans is about oh a thousand times higher than illegal immigrants.
Go back to ALIPAC where non emergency room for 100 miles is held out as an example of the sky falling as opposed to say standard fare for remote places.
June 18th, 2007 at 7:04 am
The objective of the fence is to keep people out, and then force them into checkpoints for review. This is exactly what Americans want so we can keep felons, drug dealers and other undesirables from south of the border the hell out of our Country.
Only you Cliff, on your blog, would claim it not to be as you are a hypocrite, and what works for Cliffs’ goose doesn’t work for the gander.
Our uninsured, are our uninsured, illegal aliens are nationals from south of the border, and as such not really our obligation, as in fact they are lawbreakers. So I say our obligation to our citizenry is far greater than to illegal aliens. The American people don’t want to pay for it.
Cliff you have admitted ot me from your own mouth, and I bear witness, that you claimed to hire illegal aliens, because “white trash” is lazy. You are a bogot, and only in this little of oneutah, can you hide. Yopur statements concerning your own people, are reprehensible, and more than indicative of your other intentioned activities in promoting the crap you do. Anyway, it is getting done, and there isn’t much you can do about it. It is being built privately, or the border states will build. They, as we, are completely sick of this attitude you promote.
Uh, cliff, we are going to solve it. The way the sky is going to fall is if we allow the likes of you to run this country into the ground, from your Hollady bubble.
June 18th, 2007 at 7:05 am
You are a BIGOT!! I shouldn’t type at 7:oo am in the dark.
June 18th, 2007 at 7:18 am
Actually BOGOT works, a new American word describing Clifford, the Big Red Dog.
BOGOT: An obvious bigot, with a bogus front to hide it.
June 18th, 2007 at 9:18 am
Excuse me Glenn,
Exactly what do you mean by “Yopur [sic] statements concerning your own people, are reprehensible?”
pls advise
June 18th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
You once told me in all seriousness, that only the “stupid Jews” live in Israel. As you are a Jew, and an active zionist I find the statement reprehensible,.. another quote from you.
You see all these statements are recorded and dated, because at the time I was truly fascinated by how duplictous you really are. I know you, and you sure weren’t kidding.
Wanna play chess Cliffy?
June 18th, 2007 at 3:26 pm
Isn’t this what outing gay republicans is like? I think you to be pure phony baloney.
June 18th, 2007 at 4:04 pm
Hey, here is quick synopsis of what Micheal Rivero of Whatreallyhappened.com claims illegal immigration is all about. Planned or not, it is going to turn out this way. Vist the site, real news, all the time. Plus great commentary like this.
On illegal immigration, and why the middle clas is being systematically destroyed.
Mike says, Folks, this is an economic hammer blow to destroy the middle class.
Throughout history, all opposition to tyranny has arisen from and been supported by the middle classes. So, all dictators work to remove the middle class as quickly as possible. Communism as a system created a society in which there was no middle class allowed to exist at all… with the willing participation of the gulled lower classes.
The fatal flaw with capitalism is that performance is based on rewards. Paying those rewards requires more and more capital, and becomes a major drain for a government which like all governments has as its highest priority the extraction of the most work product from the population with the least cost of upkeep.
So, here is the trap that has been set. The middle classes were lured into purchasing very expensive homes, homes which are worth more only on paper. Added to that are huge credit bills run up on credit cards offered at very low interest rates. Now the bankruptcy laws get changed to make escape from debt impossible.
To spring the trap, the new immigration bill floods the nation with cheap labor. Wages and salaries plunge, and now the Middle class is trapped with huge debts on one side, and a depressed market for their skills on the other. The middle class vanishes, and the tyrant sleeps soundly at night.
Hegel would approve. cheers glenn
June 18th, 2007 at 4:36 pm
In one final attempt to get back to the original subject- through the words of dead German philosophers:
“Mortals dwell inasmuch as they save the earth.” - Martin Heidegger
June 18th, 2007 at 4:48 pm
Hey Glenn,
Instead of attacking me personally on posts that have nothing to do with me, why don’t you start your own blog and invite us all over there to read whatever it is you’d like to claim I said.
Just click here and you can have your very own blog in seconds. I promise. I’ll link to you.
There must be at least one other person out there who cares.
June 18th, 2007 at 5:32 pm
[...] It doesn’t take very long using the Internets to find reliable information that confirms that the whole illegal immigration scare/thing is a bunch of overblown, over-hyped propaganda perpetuated by republicans, bigots and generally lazy uninformed whiners. [...]
June 19th, 2007 at 11:13 am
Cliff honestly, I have never witnessed anyone so lazy as you. I do not believe I have ever witnessed you do any physical task to completion. You do type well. I have much more fun disturbing the gladhanding that goes on here. If I want to discuss issues with unbiased intelligent people I post on the Globeandmail.com. For example, illegal immigration is very severly restricted in Canada, in fact Canadians themselves just turn interlopers in. I have been over the reality up there severla times on this site and never had anyone acknowledge what other nations do to regulate unlawful behavior from foreignors in their countries.
Ken get real, the earth is 4.5 billion years old, our orogeny didn’t begin til 250 million years ago, and then we were little more than furballs. Get ouver yourself. The earth is a dynamic system that we adapt to, we sure as hell are not big enough to save it.
June 19th, 2007 at 4:29 pm
Glenn: I strongly recommend therapy. Thanks for writing!
June 19th, 2007 at 4:58 pm
Thanks for the concern Ken. Are you in any way qualified?
I am sure it is somewhat disturbing to know about the Cliff I knew, in addition to my opinions on immigration, which BTW are simply the majority opinion of those people living in the USA. Perhaps if this approach bothers you, you can see your therapist and discuss with him.
For my part I will continue doing what I have about Illegal Immigration for the past 3 years. In Vermont and New Hampshire illegals are simply being held under local vagrancy laws in jail, until the Feds pick them up and do whatever they do with them. The stay is then remitted to the Feds for non payment by the States in form of withholding that amount to the Federal government expects from the citizens in the State. New Hampshire means to bring this issue to a head, and FORCE the Federal government to deal with it, or no more money. they have to uphold the laws of this Country, or what the hell good are they?
At 38 K you likely should have shopped around more. The system of following the sun is more efficient, but for the money, you likely could have simply bought a bigger array, and had the advantage of a non mechanical system which never has any problems, and saved the small amount of power that it takes to run the system.
Things that move are always more problematic as they age. The beauty of panels anyway is the solid state nature of the panel itself.
What you ought to do is set your array for the season(angle) for the latitude you live in. Where you are it around 40 degrees, and point them due south. Then turn off the tracking system and see how you do. Then do it with them on. you have all the recording gear.Now is an excellent time as we are upon the solstice and the test will be accurate on the clear days you are likely having. If you do it let me know how it turns out.
In reading about your system you said those who sold it to you couldn’t really say how much more power you could generate. That is pretty bad Ken, they certainly aren’t salesmen are they?
June 20th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
Ken,
If partially from a capitalist perspective, I’m excited about your solar power production. If I may ask, what was the financial cost to you to install the system? Even if I couldn’t make it break even for a while, I would like to be a leading-edger in this science so that we can reach a critical mass (like Germany) where it becomes the cost-effective thing for everyone to do. The technology is fascinating to me, and to see that I could be a power producer would actually offset for me some of the costs.
I essentially agree with the Utah legislator quoted in the SLTrib article you linked to that MMGW is “junk science”. However, I think it is critical to have clean air and be a steward of the environment (it’s part of my LDS religion actually), so I am encouraged by this statement from the SLTrib article:
Sound and sensible might–does–mean different things to different people, but I think a good compromise is closer than we think.
On a bit of a side note: I think if the cost of gas stays high (I think it will) and the cost of hybrid cars comes down a bit, I think it will be worth my while to drive a hybrid back and forth to work.
June 20th, 2007 at 3:56 pm
We paid $38 large but we also got a very customized system with bells and whistles most people wouldn’t want like the part that allows the panels to track the sun across the sky (which really increases production). Right now, it’s running everything in the house: swamp cooler, computers, studio (I work at home). I ran the dishwasher earlier, microwave, coffeemaker- all totally from the panels. Of course, it is an extremely sunny day and that makes a big difference. Perhaps the most important thing is I know exactly how much power everything in the house takes and when I should and should not run certain things. People used to feel that way about gas and power until it became so cheap and plentiful we got spoiled. It’s going to take a big change for Americans to accept a leaner, greener age. As George Bush the Elder said about the Kyoto Protocol: “the American way of life is not negotiable.†The way to make it happen is like kindergarten: make it FUN! And solar power is fun.
June 22nd, 2007 at 2:05 pm
Hmmm….
That’s a bit “large”r than I had hoped. But it would be fun. I mentioned the concept and this post to my wife, and she was intrigued. Do you have a break-even analysis on it? 5 years? 10 years? more?
June 22nd, 2007 at 4:52 pm
We figure it will pay for itself in about 20 years. Of course, that depends on how sunny it is, the amount of money I can legally get for my power, whether that is subject to taxation and how much, how much power we use, who gets elected, if they find uranium under my house, and if aliens attack. Oh sorry, Glenn (if you’re reading). They’re here.
June 22nd, 2007 at 6:04 pm
Frank, take heart. Such systems needn’t be quite sooo bell ridden or expensive. Three things: We are entering the alternative energy ‘age’, as production of same gain momentum, costs come down (even as non-renewable costs go up), and last your system will be tailored to your needs, not necessarily akin to Kens.
June 23rd, 2007 at 8:04 am
Germany has roof tiles that are photo-voltiac, have asthetic value, and are energy producing for 30 years. About the time you need a new a new roof, though in that country roofing lasts a very long time, and is tile. If you cover a goodly portion of American style asphalt cheap roof with panels, they too would last near forever. There are other ways in which the benefit can be included in the cost of a system.
Consider Ken that since the Us dollar is tanking in a major way and becoming daily worth-less, the estimate of 20 years to pay for your system, may improve as our money toilet papers itself. Spend now people, dollar oblivion is not far off.
Ken the aliens are here, and if what is happening in Co. is any indication, Utah will have a pile more shortly, as all benes have been cut off(except emergency medical care) unless you can show real ID. In Oklahoma now too, and surely many states afflicted will follow. The internet has made verifying a real number and the identity attached in minutes. So, the hand writing is on the wall in Co. if you are illegal. No one will hire you for anything without documentation, the 25,000 dollar fine being not worth it. There are no benefits anymore, so why come?
At this rate at least in Co. the problem is solving itself, and their solar incentives are going to have the State #1 in the field pretty shortly, at least in the United States.
June 23rd, 2007 at 3:36 pm
I suppose one should plan for thier voltaic array to charge the batteries of thier electric car as well. see http://gristmil.grist.org/story2007/6/18/23499/4714
June 23rd, 2007 at 3:42 pm
Once again, a bobbled link! Try: http://gristmill.grist.org/story2007/6/18/23499/4714
Sorry.
June 23rd, 2007 at 3:44 pm
Sheese, moi apolligio. You get the idea.
December 30th, 2007 at 4:19 pm
Joseph…
…After deciding on these two crucial points, then decide to buy out a treadmill……