[Tainan]

IMO, that lack of a “sustainable” manufacturing base is the root of all this crap.

[familyop]

"IMO, that lack of a “sustainable” manufacturing base is the root of all this crap."

Agreed. One of the things that I would like to build is a low cost, medium efficiency solar collector for my area and climate (steel frame, fiberglass, polyisocyanurate, copper-aluminum absorbers, regular tempered glazing), because shipping costs are high to get those here (not to mention shipping damage to absorbers). The tiny manufacturing idea is a no-go. Because even though I'm on a large, sterile, treeless acreage in the middle of nowhere, a County zoning ordinance prohibits any and all manufacturing outside of a barren, designated and outrageously expensive industrial park area (vacant land).

So there will be hobbies on the chance that the products from those hobbies might be more needed in our impoverished future.

Some counties are going so far as to outlaw the use of collectors that are not SRCC certified (expensive certification lab in hot Florida, of all places). Those high efficiency collectors are not needed where we have so little atmosphere between us and the sun and over 300 sun days per year.