[SuziQ]

Sir SuziQ and I have thought it would be great to live 'off the grid', as much as possible! Unfortunately, solar panels are just not cost effective, even here in MA where electricity is expensive! We're continuing to look at it though, even to the point where SSQ is considering building the panels himself. The parts, in and of themselves, are apparently not that expensive. You're paying for the convenience of someone else putting them together for you.

We'd also like to build some solar collection panels for heating water. Even if we can't keep a sufficient amount to have the right temp of hot water we need, we could raise the temp of the water coming in to the house so that the water heater wouldn't have to work as hard to bring the temp up. We'd save money on natural gas for the water heater!! Since we're retro-fitting our house for radiant, under the floor heat, and putting it in the addition we're building, we'll be using LOTS of hot water!

When we move back down South, you can bet we'll be looking HARD at solar electricity, passive solar heating and active water heating.

[so_real]

Thanks for the post. I too follow solar closely. It's a shame solar has the reputation that only liberals support its research. I'm afraid nuclear is pulling the rug out from under it again like it did back in the 80's. Perhaps as Japan shoots for 50% of all residential electrical demand being met by solar energy by 2030 (by which time we'll be scrambling for storage facilities for the tons of radioactive waste we've produced), some more conservatives will see that back-burnering solar research was not the smartest move we've ever made. I guess we'll see.