At 10:55 AM 7/15/01, Jeroen wrote:
>At 09:35 15-7-01 -0500, Erik Reuter wrote:
>
>> > >Tell us some details about your $32,000 system, please, Jeroen. How well
>> > >does it work? How much energy does it save?
>> >
>> > I already gave details about this earlier, more precisely on July 2nd
>> 2001,
>> > in the "Bill Moyers Reports: Earth on Edge" thread. You can find it in the
>> > eGroups archive.
>>
>>Sorry, I meant from personal experience. Since it is so cost-effective,
>>affordable, and well, green, you do have one, don't you?
>
>Actually, no. For some good reasons.
>
>1. I don't own (or even live) in a normal house, I live in an apartment
>building. There are three more storeys above the one I live on (9th floor
>out of 12), which makes it impossible for me to install anything on the roof.
>
>2. I don't own the building, so it would be illegal for me to install
>anything on the roof.
>
>3. My apartment is situated on the north-western corner of the building
>(the worst possible place in this building), which makes for only a few
>hours of direct sunlight at the end of the day.
>
>4. Even if I would want to take advantage of those few hours, I still
>wouldn't have the space to put up solar panels. Attaching anything to the
>outside wall is illegal (since I don't own the building) and what passes
>for my balcony is only 1 x 2 meters small (and already in use for other stuff).
>
>5. The installation costs for all that equipment would be too high for the
>time we have left here, because this apartment building is scheduled for
>demolition in Summer 2002.
>
>6. I don't have NLG 80,000 (the equivalent of USD 32,000) -- I have a good
>salary, but not *that* good.
>
>Enough reasons not to have such a system right now? :)
Many of the same reasons apply to many others in both Europe and the US,
thus cutting down the potential benefits of solar power because a lot of
people will be unable to install them because they live in apartments. And
having to cough up $32,000 to put one on your home is going to force a lot
of people to sell their home and move into an apartment.
-- Ronn! :)
