How much longer?

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

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"

"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

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

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"

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

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"

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

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

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