Recent Posts
Recent Posts Tagged With 'solar'
Installing our Photovoltaic system, part III
Constructing the mounting frame. I had my one “oops” moment in the project already, hopefully there will not be another one. It seems that when I laid out the position of the mounting frame, I was a little too close to the property line...
Installing our Photovoltiac system, Part II
Laying out the support frame. As mentioned before, the south facing roof on our house is taken up with the solar hot water system. The only mounting option for the photovoltaic system was to build a sun shade type support frame in the yard. The f...
Installing our Photovoltaic Solar System, Part I
I have had a pretty good year with the solar business thus far. Therefore, I decided to roll some of this year’s profits into our own Photovoltaic (PV) system. This idea has been batted about before, including as a battery back up for the s...
Happy New Year, enjoy your renewable energy incentives
Let me be the first to proclaim “HAPPY NEW YEAR!” And good riddance to 2008! Of course, not all of 2008 was doom and gloom. One of the bright spots is congress extended (to 2016) and improved the federal tax rebates for renewable ener...
DIY solar panels, Part II
This is part II of how to make your own solar thermal collector to help offset heating costs this winter. You will need a good south facing wall to mount this collector on. In order to be most effective, the wall should be unshaded between 9 am t...
DIY solar panels, Part I
I have been working on this for most of the summer. The problem with solar energy systems is that they are expensive. There is no doubt that a photovoltaic (solar electric) panel will save energy and pay for itself in time, however, the initial o...
Say Hello to Miss Information!
Miss Information, week of June 16, 2008 I decided to start a weekly thing called «Miss Information.» Miss Information is used often by people who want you to buy things, some times it is unintentional, other times it is not. As you can se...
A good solar day
Today was a very good solar day. Not a cloud in the sky, 75 degrees out side and a full solar tank of cold water because it has been cloudy the last week or so. This afternoon, around 2 pm I tiptoed down to the basement to see how things were going...
Pennsylvania Solar Course
I found this website called Pennsylvania Solar Course while doing research for my business. It is by the Pennsylvania Million Solar Roofs Initiative and has a great deal of information for DIYers looking to install solar hot water and electric syste...
Solar Savings
I got the electric bill last night, it looks like we saved about $123.00 over the same two month period last year. Our usage went from 2230 kWh during March/April of 2007 to 1497 kWh for March/April on 2008. That is the lowest electric usage for ...
Locally Manufactured Solar PV Panels
Prism Solar Technologies is to begin making holographic photovoltaic panels in Kingston, NY. The panels use proprietary optical technology in their design. This technology collects and spectrally selects useful wavelengths from the sun and focuses ...
Solar Hot Water part IV
Because good enough is never good enough, I have been tinkering with the solar hot water system. I want every BTU I can get these days, so it is all about efficiency. About a week ago, I noticed that my heat exchanger was not working very well. The...
Starting my solar business
Holiday's are over, time to get serious and start thinking about what is going to happen next. I may have mentioned in passing that I am putting together some sort of solar business. It is coming along well. I have to date, established a company n...
Solar Hot Water system is on line!
Boy this one took a long time. Not so much actual time to work on the project, rather, being able to work on the project, rainy weekends, summer vacations, taking delivery of the solar panels, et cetera. However, today at almost 12 noon, I flipped ...
Updates to the Town Zoning Ordinance
Our Town (Town of Rochester) is updating it’s zoning ordinance as I have written about before. Reading through the revised draft this morning I came upon this little paragraph dealing with small wind turbines: 140-13(H) (Accessory Structures a...
Saved by the Sun
I just finished watching this multipart NOVA program produced by PBS called Saved by the Sun. It is broken into 6 parts that are about 7-9 minutes each. I thought it was really good and if you have a few minutes, it is well worth the time. It gives...
If you care about the environment at all…
Even just one little smidgen, you should check out the Solar Energy Industries Association website. I have never done a bleg (short for begging on a blog) before, however, there is a first time for everything. Right now, congress is negotiating the...
Solar Hot Water installation update II
I have completed the electrical work. This includes wiring the differential controller and pumps with 115 VAC, and running the wires for the temperature sensors on the collectors and the solar storage tank. Although there is no specific NEC section...
Domestic Hot Water Solar Installation, Part I
Today, the weather was perfect, temperature around 73 degrees, no wind, no rain, just plenty of bright sunshine. What better day than today to install my Hot Water Solar system? And you, being the astute reader, will say “none,” and y...
Solar Installation Video
I was looking around on YouTube at solar installation videos this afternoon to see how other people have installed solar collectors on the roof. The problem I have is my solar collectors are 4 x 10 feet and weigh 153 pounds each. That is going to...
The Dog Days of Summer
I was listening to NPR while I was driving from one place to another today and they were talking about the dog days of summer. What I found interesting is that saying dates back to the Roman times and has to do with Sirius (the Dog Star) rising with...
Solar Hot water project update
It has taken quite some time, however, my solar collectors where finally delivered on Monday, June 4th picked up at the Yellow Freight Terminal this afternoon (June 14th). It is long and sorted tale, but the end result is what is important. Behold!...
