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On Apr 8, 2:13 am, Nomen Nescio wrote:
[...] What a great idea. I'll bet Jay has never even thought of that or done any type of a cost/benefit analysis. ![]() Interesting cost/benefit for one case. ~7 year to pay for it. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/solar/house.html Obviously it's a stretch to apply it to all houses. Interesting show, nonetheless. Entire show is he http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/solar/program.html Thinking of checking out one of the houses that's featured in the show (Somerville is one town over from where I work). =============== I remember playing around Freshman year in college ('80). I was a tech theatre major and 'borrowed' one of the Fresnel lenses. Found a beat up old car radiator in the garage. Cut a 55 gal. drum in half, painted the inside black, filled up the radiator with water, and proceeded to set the el-cheapo experiment into motion. Took about a minute, and the pressure built up enough that you could hear the metal stressing out. The tranny lines, which were cut and bent, began to straighten out. We took a few steps back. 30 seconds or so later, and what little tranny juice had remained, shot out fairly rapidly. We took a few more steps back. Finally, the radiator just failed completely, as steam shot at high pressure from whatever new orifices were being created. We concluded: Stupid solar, might as well abandon this. Damn old rusted cheap, sitting in the garage for 10+ years, radiator. Waste of time... let's go do something constructive, like take the dirt bikes out again... Yeah, we were down a few quarts, so had to be properly oiled (heh) beforehand, to ensure an nice uncontrolled experiment :P Regards, Jon |
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Finally, the radiator just failed completely, as steam shot at high
pressure from whatever new orifices were being created. Uh oh -- thread creep. Good story, though. Back during the LAST "energy crisis" in the 1970s, solar collectors sprouted on rooftops like daisies. Everyone wanted to harness all that "free" energy. What we soon discovered, however, is that it was far from free. The thermal stress on all that black plastic soon reduced the collectors to cracked and leaky junk -- and it was all ABOVE YOUR HOUSE so that the leaks did the most harm to your home. Within just a few years, they were gone from the rooftops, and lots of contractors had prospered fleecing lots of "green" home owners. Now, you say, could these not be made more durable today? You bet they could, but at a cost that would amaze you. And, no matter what you make plumbing out of, no matter how much money you spend on it, there is one truism that every long-term property owner knows to be true: Eventually, it WILL leak. One day these problems may be overcome. Until then, the natural gas furnaces and water heaters will continue to be the most efficient choices. -- Jay Honeck Iowa City, IA Pathfinder N56993 www.AlexisParkInn.com "Your Aviation Destination" |
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"Jay Honeck" wrote in
news:lMLKj.58041$TT4.8149@attbi_s22: Finally, the radiator just failed completely, as steam shot at high pressure from whatever new orifices were being created. Uh oh -- thread creep. Good story, though. Back during the LAST "energy crisis" in the 1970s, solar collectors sprouted on rooftops like daisies. Everyone wanted to harness all that "free" energy. What we soon discovered, however, is that it was far from free. The thermal stress on all that black plastic soon reduced the collectors to cracked and leaky junk -- and it was all ABOVE YOUR HOUSE so that the leaks did the most harm to your home. Within just a few years, they were gone from the rooftops, and lots of contractors had prospered fleecing lots of "green" home owners. Now, you say, could these not be made more durable today? You bet they could, but at a cost that would amaze you. And, no matter what you make plumbing out of, no matter how much money you spend on it, there is one truism that every long-term property owner knows to be true: Eventually, it WILL leak. One day these problems may be overcome. Until then, the natural gas furnaces and water heaters will continue to be the most efficient choices. you're an idiot. Bertie |
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On Apr 8, 9:00*am, "Jay Honeck" wrote:
Uh oh -- thread creep. *Good story, though. Back during the LAST "energy crisis" in the 1970s, solar collectors sprouted on rooftops like daisies. *Everyone wanted to harness all that "free" energy. Now, you say, could these not be made more durable today? *You bet they could, but at a cost that would amaze you. * One day these problems may be overcome. * Jay Honeck Jay, Ill try to get things a little more on topic. The airport where I keep one of my airplanes is run almost entirely on Solar power (There is a small diesel engine for the well) . Most of the equipment , including the batteries, was purchased government surplus and the system has payed for itself several times over. As an interesting side note, all the hangars on the field are secondhand . I am 30 minutes from a major metro area and I pay a buck fifty a month for a hangar. FB |
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Jay, Ill try to get things a little more on topic. The airport where I keep
one of my airplanes is run almost entirely on Solar power (There is a small diesel engine for the well) What parts of the airport are solar powered? Runway lights? Lights in the FBO? How do they supply heating/air conditioning? -- Jay Honeck Iowa City, IA Pathfinder N56993 www.AlexisParkInn.com "Your Aviation Destination" |
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On Apr 8, 10:08*pm, "Jay Honeck" wrote:
What parts of the airport are solar powered? *Runway lights? *Lights in the FBO? * How do they supply heating/air conditioning? -- Jay Honeck No runway lights. One paved and two grass runways (Runways mowed by fossil fuel burning tractor). EVERYTHING else, including the office/ bar is solar. I dont have one of those fancy electric hangar door openers (I need the exersize anyways) but I do have electric outlets in my hangar. The owner of the field is not a tree hugger or a granola, I think he was just looking for the cheapest way to do things. As for heat and air; Swamp cooler in the summer (Or we sit outside on the patio for our cookouts on the weekends) and the place is closed much of the winter (Owner travels south for the winter and no snow removal but you can land and take off when the runway is clear). I will admit it is a bit out of the ordinary but I brought it up to show a little of what is possible. Frank |
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I will admit it is a bit out of the ordinary but I brought it up to show
a little of what is possible. I think it's great (we, too, have a manual hangar door), and wish more places would do this. I'm curious how they are getting 110 volts for your outlets. I thought that was unattainable with current (sorry!) technology. -- Jay Honeck Iowa City, IA Pathfinder N56993 www.AlexisParkInn.com "Your Aviation Destination" |
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In article "F. Baum" writes:
Jay, Ill try to get things a little more on topic. The airport where I keep one of my airplanes is run almost entirely on Solar power (There is a small diesel engine for the well) . Most of the equipment , including the batteries, was purchased government surplus and the system has payed for itself several times over. And, paying for that stuff at retail would cost *lots* more. If the taxpayers had not paid for it already, it would be way out of reach. As an interesting side note, all the hangars on the field are secondhand . I am 30 minutes from a major metro area and I pay a buck fifty a month for a hangar. And a bit farther than that out of San Francisco, $120/month will get you a tail-in tie down outside, but talk is that it may go up substantially in the next few months. Alan |
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F. Baum wrote:
Jay, Ill try to get things a little more on topic. The airport where I keep one of my airplanes is run almost entirely on Solar power (There is a small diesel engine for the well) This is a brilliant example of the right idea. Germany has turned solar-cell development into a national project similar to the way they built metal-skin monowing fighter--I mean, uh, "race"--aircraft when everbody else was still putzing around in bi-planes. The multi-wavelength cells are taking solar energy out of the '70s and back-shelf Radio Shack hobby kits where the rest of the world abandoned it and turning it into something. Maybe we'll never get the internal combustion engine out of the general aviation aircraft or the tractor-trailer, but if we get Guam to stop burning diesel 24/7 for power (for example) and we find alternative ways to fuel -other- things where we can, we'll lessen the burden on that which truly requires oil. Maybe that will be enough to get us by until we develop a better way to push a piston. In the meantime, a whole economy can and will be built around alternative energy including solar, hydrogen, lithium ion, corn, beets, sugar, uranium, offshore wave energy, etc. It will take a generation of people willing to think out of the box the way the Wright Brothers did before we're free again. -c |
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gatt schrieb:
Germany has turned solar-cell development into a national project similar to (...) uhm, I wouldn't call it a national project, but it is recognised as a serious industry. #m |
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