Welcome! Here are the website rules, as well as some tips for using this forum.
Need to contact us? Visit https://heatinghelp.com/contact-us/.
Click here to Find a Contractor in your area.

A \"green\" quandry! (GrandPAH)

Humnnnn, keep the trees, forget about adding more solar

or

Cut the trees and free up the remainder of our roof to add more solar?

Hint: these are pines nearing the end of their life cycle and dying from an incurable infection. So says the tree doctors we've had look at them. Such a thing as a Dr. Kavorkian for trees?

Comments

  • Brad White_9
    Brad White_9 Member Posts: 2,440
    Let's see now....

    Evergreen trees blocking your solar array... trees on life support...

    You need help deciding?

    Don't sit Stihl, it's Husquevarna time!

    :)

    Brad
  • heatboy
    heatboy Member Posts: 1,468
    heatboy



    The Radiant Whisperer





    "The laws of physics will outweigh the laws of ecomomics every time."
  • Guess you have to ask yourself....

    Which is going to reduce carbon dioxide more in its lifetime... The CO2 displaced by not having to burn dinosaurs for thermal energy, or the pine trees sucking CO2 up from those that did...

    One you can measure, the others a guess...

    I vote for the chain saw massacre.

    ME
  • ALH_4
    ALH_4 Member Posts: 1,790
    Both

    Considering the condition of the existing trees, I would remove them and plant new trees that can be pruned so they do not shade the panels again.
  • Brad White_9
    Brad White_9 Member Posts: 2,440
    But admit it, Andrew....

    You really would want to be there when the come down, if not wield the chainsaw yourself... c'mon, you know it,

    :)
  • Jerry Scharf_4
    Jerry Scharf_4 Member Posts: 7
    sad to see old friends go

    I have a tree at our house that I would cry if it ever got sick and needed to go. That said, I think trees that are past their healthy life are best laid to rest. As for the CO2 levels, pines aren't terribly good converters.

    jerry
  • Weezbo
    Weezbo Member Posts: 6,232
    Quarantine them in a Tarn wood boiler *~/:)

    if they come out as heat ..then they weren't bewitched...if they come back as pine trees well it would be best to burn them any way you could...for the planet.
  • ALH_4
    ALH_4 Member Posts: 1,790
    Chainsaw

    I'll see if I can borrow a chainsaw from these guys. I will need a hand. ;-)
  • Weezbo
    Weezbo Member Posts: 6,232
    :)) Thanks :)

    i love this place *~/:)
  • Ruthe Jubinville_2
    Ruthe Jubinville_2 Member Posts: 674
    cool pics

  • sentimental value

    Well, my two brothers & I planted the trees when we were young lads. A local paper mill was offering free seedlings & Dad jumped at the opportunity. Every day that summer, we were required to hand water each seedling - all 500 of em!

    Almost all of them died within the past five years. When I was planning our first foray into solar this past year, I thought I had the whole roof to play with. However, the sun's low angle in winter months caused their shadow to grow long and virtually all of the roof went dark far too early in the afternoon. That's when the four closest to the house began living on borrowed time(G).
  • cut em down

    My neighbors let me cut their old trees down next to my collectors, I burned the wood in a wood stove instead of using my boiler and I planted new white birch farther away from my solar collectors- everybody wins. Get the family together and have a re-planting, it would be a good opportunity to explain to the family about solar. Bob Gagnon

    To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"
    To learn more about this professional, click here to visit their ad in Find A Contractor.
  • jackchips_2
    jackchips_2 Member Posts: 1,338
    I'll

    echo that Brad.

    There are more trees in the USA now than when the Pilgrams landed and xxxx told me so.

    :-))

    Jack
  • Ken_40
    Ken_40 Member Posts: 1,320
    Don't forget the permit!

    Tree euthanasia permits, $40./tree

    Wildlife refuge import/export fee, $100.

    Soil sampling before felling, $50.

    Soil sampling after felling, $50.

    State approved sap removal vessel(one ounce size) $5.00/tree

    Fuel/oil mixing permit: 40:1 @ 16.50/pint. 50:1 @ $16.75

    Excessive noise permit, $100.(weekdays 9-5)

    Excessive noise permit, $500. (weekends 9-5)

    Excessive noise permit after 5 p.m. $1,000 or first born.

    Use of public land for disposal permit, $2,000

    Nuclear devices, $1,000,000/device

    Putting Elliot Spitzer's head under the chainsaw, priceless.
  • Who's Elliot?

    You're obviously familiar with York, PA and our permit departments(G). You're a tad low on the permit & inspection fees. It'd take a month of Sundays to get that many permits for one job! At no less than 1.5-hours per permit, I'll grow old in line.

    As for Elliot, you'll do less time for that crime here than almost anywhere else in the US!

    In order to avoid said fees, we are planning on adding 1,500 feet of PVC to the chainsaw exhaust with a few jake-brakes. Run silent - cut deep!

    Youth in Asia? For 40-bucks? No wonder Hershey is going to make candy there.

    The neighbor has an all-natural earth-bermed walk-in kiln where he fires product twice a year. The kiln is sloped, so first objects are up to 7' tall while last ones in the back are tea cup size. He'll be the beneficiary. They go through about a week of solid burn-time and three weeks of cool-down time. The tanins provide the natural colors instead of glazes.
  • Paul Rohrs_4
    Paul Rohrs_4 Member Posts: 466
    Oh the Humanity!

    I'll have a glass of two-cycle and a carbon-credit chaser please. Make it a double.

    Tree's are still renewable resources the last time I checked.

    Regards,

    PR
  • Ron Huber_2
    Ron Huber_2 Member Posts: 127
    chop chop

    Those trees are going to go down in a strong wind before you can say "whish I would have cut them down and dropped them where I wanted them to fall" . I am struggling with cutting down some pines to get High def TV. But to increase solar output? Chop Chop.
  • Brad White_2
    Brad White_2 Member Posts: 188
    Elliot Spitzer

    Former NY Attorney General, made his reputation by ruining others. Put a few white collar criminals behind bars but use a broad brush to condemn areas of finance formerly legal. See Ex Post Facto.

    Now he is Governor of New York.

    The most dangerous place to stand in NY is between Elliot Spitzer and a microphone :)

    JMHO
  • Mad Dog_2
    Mad Dog_2 Member Posts: 6,831
    You can ALWAYS add more trees and shrubbery

    in other locations on your property...get the Husqvarni rippin' Mad Dog

    To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"
  • Mad Dog_2
    Mad Dog_2 Member Posts: 6,831
    You know whats EVEN more dangerous

    getting in between Eliot and Chuckie Schumer when there is only one microphone on the stage. Ruck and maul. Mad Dog

    To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"
  • hot_rod
    hot_rod Member Posts: 22,018
    A real man would

    cut them down with a hand powered saw :)

    Make some dog beds with the pine needles to sell in your spare time.

    Plant some new trees in the name of the grand babies.
    Everybody wins.

    hot rod
    Bob "hot rod" Rohr
    trainer for Caleffi NA
    Living the hydronic dream
  • Maine Doug_62
    Maine Doug_62 Member Posts: 7
    I'm sorry. My new hat

    is preventing me from dealing with this question.

    http://zapatopi.net/afdb/
  • Duncan Wilson would be proud of you....

    ME
  • ScottMP
    ScottMP Member Posts: 5,884
    As a friend of mine once said

    They may have all the oil .... but we know what to do with it :)

    aaaaahhhhhahahahahaha ..

    Scott

    To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"
  • ScottMP
    ScottMP Member Posts: 5,884
    Hey Dave

    whats killin em ?? Small amounts of antifreeze applied nightly ???

    :)

    Scott

    To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"
  • nah

    copper spikes(G)
  • singh
    singh Member Posts: 866
    disease

    Sad to say I have to cut all my pines also. Lost all their needles.
    On the bright side of things : ) More sun will hit my place for some
    solar collectors.



    To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"
This discussion has been closed.