��� That's been my usual plan of attack. However, I more interested in finding non-fossil fuel alternatives for generating heat energy. Solar cells and basement batteries are another long-term avenue I'm looking into. I've also found solar-powered attic fans. Another thing the oncoming winter has me thinking of is better insulation such as replacement windows, window shrink-wrap insulation ala Scotch or 3M, better insulation of electrical wall sockets and floor plates, heavy drapes, etc.
Solar is still almost an order of magnitude more expensive than any fossil fuel alternative.
If you want to install enough photovoltaic capacity to power an electric heating system, you are talking about something in the $30-50,000 range.
Passive solar simply doesn't provide anything resembling a "reliable" source in this climate.
Even when you increase the cost of the installation to provide you with the ability to sell your excess power back to the grid, (you usually only have excess in the summer), and you manage to land one of the existing Solar Grants, the "payback" time with existing solar photovoltaic technology is well over 25 years for these large systems.
Photovoltaic efficiencies have only been increasing about 1% a year over the last 10 years or so, but those increases haven't resulted in cheaper technology, only more expensive. The last time I checked about 2 years ago, the current mass-market (i.e. affordable) photovoltaics were only about 14% efficient while Lab based stuff was around 18%.
There will undoubtedly be a "breakthrough," either in manufacturing or conversion efficiencies, but nobody is willing to guess when.
The best news for Photovotaics in recent years has been the price of oil pushing towards $60 per barrel. Previously "expensive" alternatives suddenly become "competitive" as the "standard" (hydrocarbons) increases in cost.
So, if you want an alternative to fossil fuel to emerge sooner rather than later, hope that George Soros continues to try to embarrass the Bush administration by manipulating the Oil Futures market the way he did the European Financial markets a few years ago.
If you are interested in Solar, you can join the Philadelphia Solar Energy Association here:
http://www.phillysolar.org/
(BTW, their bulletin board has almost no posts on it in the past year.) Look at the Green Buildings and Solar Tour and click on the individual buildings to see what some of the installations cost and how much power they mange to generate
T.T.F.N. William H. Magill [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
---- You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named "UnivCity." To unsubscribe or for archive information, see <http://www.purple.com/list.html>.
