I would be concerned about the accuracy of their claims, since they obviously don't understand what they are saying. On the refrigerator, I looked up an Energystar compliant, GE side by side just to have a comparator. It is rated (by the government) at 548 kWh/a. This is an average power rating of about 63 W (I'm sure that is an average of higher power when the compressor is running and zero when it isn't). The 33 kW array would be about 330 m² at 10% efficiency, or 165 m² at 20% efficency. Given that my house is two-story, even the lower figure is significantly larger than my roof area. (Never mind that both sides can't face south) Is this Al Gore's energy efficient mansion? My garage roof couldn't provide 5 kW, even if both sides faced south (and it weren't shaded by a tree)
--- On Sun, 5/13/12, Pierre Abbat <[email protected]> wrote: From: Pierre Abbat <[email protected]> Subject: [USMA:51639] solar homes and the abuse of power To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> Date: Sunday, May 13, 2012, 12:00 PM I bought The New Solar Home to get some ideas for the house I'm designing. The book is full of square feet and acres and degrees Fahrenheit, but what irks me most about the units is sentences like these: p. 102: "The most obvious green feature is the 33-kilowatt-per-hour rooftop photovoltaic array..." p. 63: "The ten-kilowatt-per-hour photovoltaic (PV) system on the garage roof provides all of their electricity..." p. 32: "In the kitchen, a super-efficient Conserv refrigerator-freezer consumes only 600 watts per day..." There's another lulu that struck me as even worse, but I can't find it now. Pierre -- lo ponse be lo mruli po'o cu ga'ezga roda lo ka dinko
