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" Summer&amp;#039;s flying by, as summer is wont to do. This one has seemed especially short, after the incredibly rainy spring we had.  Speaking of rain, we got a good soaker on Sunday, accompanied by steady wind. Nice to see our Whisper 100 wind turbine in action. Without it, we would have been running off stored power in our batteries. With it, we were actually gaining power. A couple of quick questions/comments from recent posts: Re: Solar Home Project: Money in the Bank, Propane in the Tank How many sq. ft. is the house and do you store the heated water in a storage tank, and what size tank do you have? BH: Our house is about 2200 sq ft. The water from the solar collectors dumps into a 80-gallon insulated water heater.  Re: Solar Home Project: You&amp;#039;ve got questions I am curious as to the final cost (so far) of this project, and how long the payback time will be. BH: Add it all up, and we&amp;#039;re looking at about $40k, give or take. A lot of money, no question. In our case (remote site), payback isn&amp;#039;t much of an issue, since it would have cost so much to bring grid power back here. But assuming a more typical site, it&amp;#039;d be hard to justify this install based purely on payback. Certainly the solar hot water will deliver a reasonable payback (about 6-8 years, given $3 propane). But with electricity still so cheap (about 14 cents/kwh around here), the photovoltaics and wind will need decades to pay back. That said, we have a level of energy security that most of our neighbors don&amp;#039;t enjoy. And should electric rates rise (as they surely will), it will start looking like a better investment. Finally, it just feels good to be energy independent. Is that worth $40k? I suppose that depends on your perspective! Re: Solar Home Project: You&amp;#039;ve got questions May I know what solar panel and its related component would you recommend to be use in home installation. I am thinking of converting my home into solar power usage. I m staying in the tropics where we have plenty of sunshine for 365 days. I would like the solar power to power my home lighting, electrical equipment and air conditioning. Is there a possiblity to have a system setup to power the above items without having to spend a bomb in it. Thank you BH: Great question. Sounds like you&amp;#039;re ideally situated for photovoltaics, which puts you at least one big step ahead of us. To talk actual system sizing and approximate price, I&amp;#039;d need to know more about your electricity use. Do you know how many kilowatt hours you use each day? Warning: Powering air conditioning via solar is not going to be cost effective.  Re: Solar Home Project: You&amp;#039;ve got questions I am very interested in Solar energy what every it is used for. We have a water heater that only comes on when we ask for how water and that is a saving. We purchased hi efficency washer and dryer to cut down on electric use. I would like to know where to get more informtion about insalling roof solar pannels, what kind-what size, and all the storage information that goes with the system. I was a member of the Internation Brotherhood of Electricans Local#520 here in Austin, Texas until I retired so I know a little about electricity. I have been a purchasser and reader evey month of Popular Mechanics. A great maganize. BH: Sounds like you have an on-demand hot water heater. Those are great. And congrats on choosing energy efficient appliances. I&amp;#039;ll point you to www.realgoods.com for more info. Poke around on that site for a while and you&amp;#039;ll come away with a lot of knowledge.  Re: Solar Home Project: You&amp;#039;ve got questions I&amp;#039;m interested in the home solar PV systems with the utility company net metering billing. I believe that the meter will slow down or runs in reverse when the PV system is generating electricity. I&amp;#039;m not looking for something big - just to backup power for my Forced Hot Air Furnace when there&amp;#039;s a long power outage. What am I looking in terms of cost for something that will do the job for me? If, it is possible to e-mail me your comments, it would be greatly appreciated by the sender of this, sir. BH: Yes, you&amp;#039;re correct. Many states have a net metering program that does just what you say. Again, I&amp;#039;d need to know a bit more about your furnace\u2026 somewhere on there it should tell you how much power it draws, probably via the fans it uses to circulate heat. If all else fails, give the manufacturer a call. And drop me another note.  Re: Solar Home Project: Of Cow Poop and Cars Hi Ben - If you haven&amp;#039;t discovered a book published last year and reprinted this year, I suspect you will be captivated by: &amp;quot;The Long Emergency,&amp;quot; author: James Howard Kunstler Used paperbacks are available for about eight bucks from Amazon. (I quite suspect your growing readership might really like to know about this book too!) Keep up those marvelous blogs! John BH: Hello John. Good to hear from you. Ah, Mr Kunstler. Cheery chap, eh? I have read this book. Very entertaining and well written and also (hopefully) on the pessimistic side. For readers who aren&amp;#039;t familiar with the book, it basically outlines Kunstler&amp;#039;s view of a United States dealing with the ramifications of &amp;quot;peak oil,&amp;quot; the point at which the world can no longer extract ever-greater amounts of oil to fuel our lifestyle. Depending on who&amp;#039;s talking, peak oil is either now, a few years from now, or somewhere between 2020 and 2050. Definitely an issue that deserves attention. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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