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Re: Solar Energy



Barry Smith  <barry@bluesky.com> wrote:
 
>...Solar technology (like bicycle technology) can fit in well
>with a different lifestyle, but an emotional involvement with your
>heating system is not required for the technology to be effective. :-)

It probably helps :-) It seems to me that many people have built their
houses, if not lifestyles, around their heating systems, eg kiva fireplaces
in the US Southwest, massive Russian fireplaces, or traditional Chinese
"fireplaces" that serve for cooking, house heating and beds. 

>... like any new technology, solar technology is for the zealot, the
>adventurer, the avant-garde, the technology buff ... and the wealthy.

I realize that you are still rambling on about PVs here, but solar house
heating reminds me of sailing:

   1. Sailing is something you do because you want to do it, not
   because you have to do it. For some it is an expensive hobby. 

   2. Sailing is a relatively old technology. So is solar heating.

   3. Sailing well requires expertise of a particular and somewhat
   mysterious kind. Motorboating requires less expertise.

   4. Sailboats use natural forces to accomplish something that can be
   more conveniently done with fossil fuels, as does solar heating.

   5. Sailboats use less energy than motorboats. In fact, some
   high-performance sailboats have no motors at all, which is analogous
   to high-performance solar houses, with no backup heating systems. 

   6. Most importantly, performance matters in sailing. It would be nice
   if people began to think more about the performance of solar houses,
   and about their cost-effectiveness. I'd like to see passive solar house
   heating as a competitive sport, where performance matters. Sailboats
   are pretty, but looks are incidental to serious sailors. That is quite
   different from the perspective of most architects and house buyers
   in this country today. 

It seems to me that passive solar house heating is a natural thing for
low-income people, who might be in a better position than rich people
to appreciate the lower heating bills and the extra floorspace and the
chance to grow food in the winter that comes with a low-thermal-mass
poly film sunspace. Low-income people, eg those who live in mobile homes,
might also be less rigid in their ideas about what a house "ought to
look like," aesthetically, than people who live in million dollar houses. 

>(Bill Gates would improve his image if his house had a PV system.  ;-)

Not in my book, especially on that island in downtown Seattle.

OTOH, it would be nice if Dennis Weaver had added a solar closet or two
to his two million dollar collection of old tires. 

Nick