7135

maybe

Don't know yet. My schedule is pretty full as it is, but I'm dying to attend. You attending? Speaking? Teaching?

When I attended the Solar World Congress in Florida, I was somewhat surprised there weren't many speakers who are directly involved doing installations. You couldn't move without bumping into a PHD, which made for an event that stuffed my head full of theory and evolving technology - so full my brain hurt. I went there expecting an RPA Convention kind of event. Needless to say, I was bowled-over by what I encountered.

Didn't get nearly enough time on the all-to-small trade show floor as I was drawn to the technical sessions like a moth to a flame. Oil broke the $60 buck threshold and Bush signed the energy bill with solar credits during the show, which sent a jolt of electricity through the event and got everyone energized.

Was my first real exposure to Hubbert's Peak and factual talks revealing just how little of an impact alternative fuels and hydrogen (thanks to Frank Kreith, who disected alternative fuels with fact after fact and laid out reality) will really have in the long and short term. One of the more dramatic events, for me, was the global perspective on potable water resources and what we're doing to ourselves in this country by pumping down aquifers at alarming rates - all through the corn belt where we once experienced a dust bowl created by nature. This emerging dust bowl will be man-made and virtually permanent. Irrigation that wastes water by more than 70% is heavily subsidized by our government, while drip irrigation that could save the day gets not one red cent in funding. Go figgure. Farmers are finding it more lucrative to sell their underground water rights than it is to farm - as if water knows the boundaries. Underground aquifers are under attack from landfill off-gassing too as has been proven as fact in AZ. The very crops that will suffer the most are the ones we must have for bio-diesel.

On the Today Show this morning, a guest was saying that we need oil to pass the $100 PB mark for us (the US) to get motivated into taking real action.

If I took nothing else away from the Solar World Congress, it was the stark reality that solar is the answer with all of the other alternatives filling narrow cracks.

Sorry for the rant. Methinks Rome is burning while the fat cats get fatter and our President, who could be inspiring our citizens and calling for energy indeprendence by initiating a ton of programs, is distracted by too many other issues. We're in for a rough & tumble decades-long turmoil as the world's easy-to-get and easy-to-extract oil reserves begin their decline.

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a number

of topics come quickly to mind! "Building a bridge to solar utilizing existing fossil fuel technology - a primer for today's mechanical contractor" We could work the room together(G). Tag team time?

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I am

so chomping at the bit. Treading cautiously though as that chomping has sent me off half-cocked one too many times and this time, the components aren't very cheap. I've also got the Mrs. saying "If it doesn't look nice on my (notice its her, not our) roof, it'll be taken back down. I figgure half that roof's mine! (No doubt the shaded side.)

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Today it hit

$72.00 I believe it closed above that also.

Just think of another Katrina this fall or some idiot driving a truck bomb into a Suadi refinery. Don't think too long though, it'll get you depressed. If there's ANY kind of a glitch at all this year, we WILL see $4.00 a gallon fuel. Our world simply can't sustain the current rate of resource consumption by any stretch of the imagination.

Al Gore is right, only he blames it all on Christians.

nice to here

about HTP. I spoke with a customer about solar and the numbers shocked him. The Super-Stor tank design would be perfect for solar storage.

I am thinking of doing solar of my kitchen. ME's design has me wondering about the storage during peak output and low demand. I was thinking towards a simple drain back type system and had never thought about the fluid hitting hot panels. Then again in Mass, how many times would I hit that senario ??

Scott

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saw an evac tube

with an overheat limiter that is supposed to "lock in" the steam so it can't return to the tube. Don't know as I'd completely trust that, but it would be a nice secondary limit if all else failed.

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Hah! That's it(G).

Honey, we'll need to put in a pool too. It'll be heated.

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Don't laugh


You are not too far off base with that!!

Mark H

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Challenge: get me off the grid!

Suggestion for a piece of your businesses, or challenge for you all. Obviously I have little clue about what the right approach is here. But I'm guessing there's a market for this kind of semi-retrofit approach.

My house is fin-tube baseboard. Probably will never go radiant, much as it appeals. Too much surgery. Plan to stay in house 15+ years, and we're basically done with additions or other significant mods that would affect the mechanicals. Future improvements to the envelope (replacing the last of the crappy windows, upgrading insulation, reducing infiltration, etc.) can be assumed.

Climate is southern New England (Cape Cod). Pretty good orientation of largest roof surface; it faces 210 degrees i.e., 30 degrees west of due south. Latitude 41d26' N. Excellent exposure -- no trees or other shadowing.

Goal: incorporate as much solar as possible for heating and DHW. Keep electricity generation out of it for now.

Given that the house will likley always have "high temp" heat emitters (>= 140F to avoid the White/Pesci recalcitrant air problem -- search here on Pesci if this doesn't ring a bell), what's the optimal design to reduce heating/DHW costs over that time frame? I'm thinking some kind of solar with a boiler boost to make up the difference between what would be in the presumably large storage tank in my basement and what's required to keep the place comfortable and make DHW. Add fin-tube as necessary, or go with some other kind of emitter? etc. etc.

Does this get me down to a very small, efficient boiler? What are the options here? What would this semi-retrofit look like?

challenge accepted!

That's been my focal point - ever since attending the Solar World Congress last year. Finding a way to retro-fit solar into existing residences and businesses will be where most of the work lies and, also, where the greatest skills (for us) will be required.

The solar part (and I believe electric MUST be in the mix) isn't the hardest part to calculate IF we simply install based on current energy usage, but that will mean the solar system installed will be more expensive and much larger than what will be required IF the overall system is tweaked to button-up and eliminate much of the energy currently wasted.

So, either we become the go-to experts in things beyond our current scope of work, or someone else will come along and eat our lunch while turning solar into a commodity-priced game where the bottom-feeders set the price levels. There'll be enough of that going on anyway, so my intent is to ensure our firm gains a solid footing in this emerging market as a design/build/install/service firm for solar - both wet and PV.

I intend to keep my own solar systems available for any local trade schools, science teachers and/or any other interested individuals who'd like to study them and gauge the performance. Mine is (obviously) a retro-fit application and my ultimate goal is to transform it into a zero-energy home.

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