Beam me to Planet Gore !
Posted on 04/18/2011 4:34:06 PM PDT by landsbaum
A reader who saw my column Your money’s gone with the wind (and solar) on Sunday sent this photo of the solar panels he has. . .
. . .Solar panels get dirty. Just like roofs. But dirt on roofs doesn’t affect their efficiency.
(Excerpt) Read more at orangepunch.ocregister.com ...
Ping.
We had a 10 panel system and it was junk.
Are there people out there that
didn’t know this would be a problem?
We live in the country in upstate NY (not the sunniest environment) and have had solar panels on our house for over 30 years. We use them to heat water before it goes into our hot water heater, heated water warms our floors. Another solar system heats our pool. It was low cost (we did most of it ourselves - no fancy tank), pretty low maintenance after we got the initial bugs out, and it has saved us a LOT of money over the years while making our lives much more comfortable. I would rather spend the money on other things. We live simply and frugally.
We also use a wood stove for heat and when the power goes out due to ice storms or other weather anomalies, we have an easy way to cook.
We no longer use our oil furnace - a wonderful thing when oil costs go sky high.
It makes sense to have multiple sources of power available so you are not overly dependent on any one, especially these days.
It was explained to me once that the more random the radiation the better for developing taste.
That's why coal & wood fired ovens make the best pizza, etc..
Well I would say you are doing pretty good. My barber had a system of solar panels and he ran it through the wood stove on days when the sun didn’t shine, His system was exopensive and lasted him 5 years before it became useless.
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