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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: d[-_-]b who wrote (183322)	2/23/2004 12:32:16 PM
From: Road Walker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1576113

Eric, re: if you were really a home owner you'd ask more questions. Not only am I a homeowner but I have solar panels on my roof to heat my pool, which is quite common in central Florida. John

To: d[-_-]b who wrote (183322)	2/23/2004 12:50:24 PM
From: Alighieri	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1576113

Oh, I thought it was because solar panels don't make sense in every situation. Or that they just aren't economically viable in most instances or they'd be all over the place. If cleaning the damn things was such a big deal, we'd have illegals retire from gardening and cleaning the panels in your neighborhood. Besides I doubt there exists enough surface area on most homes to provide for enough power generation to be self sufficient let alone contribute to a grid. Also, what do these things weigh, can most existing roofs handle the load? How do they attach to shingle, or tile roofs? What does one do every 20 years when they need to re-roof? What's the clearance above the existing roof, in wet climates does it create a green house under them encouraging organic growth, causing the roof to age prematurely? Are we going to spend more fixing our roofs, how do they mount to the roof without causing leaks? What about high wind storm conditions? Do they create air foils of themselves? I had solar hot water heater for 18 years when I lived in Florida...a system called SolarHart (I think). It was a passive system with 2 full panels and an 80 gallon tank on the roof sitting higher than the panels. The water heated in the panels and convected upward into the tank. No pumps, no moving parts, no batteries, and completely free of maintenance. In 18 years I remember changing a pressure relief valve once. During the last year, I had to replace the roof. If cost me $300 to have a team come in, take it down and re-install it after the roof was finished. Al

To: d[-_-]b who wrote (183322)	2/23/2004 1:34:14 PM
From: hmaly	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1576113

Eric. Re...Are we going to spend more fixing our roofs, how do they mount to the roof without causing leaks? What about high wind storm conditions? Do they create air foils of themselves? Very well put. And that is what I tried to tell him. Washing of the panels is just one of many problems you have when you put them on the roof. However, if you build the house from scratch, not retrofit it, many of the problems you present can be taken care of, with proper engineering, even cleaning. What most people here don't realize, is that I did business for 2 contractors, who built energy efficient homes, in the 80s. Both of them have quit building them; because the hype, difficulties and costs, didn't live up to the benefits, even on homes, built with energy efficiency from the scratch. Retrofits, by the mid to late 80's had also disappeared. And I haven't seen John, or anyone else address sufficiently the problems. Without that, solar, on homes will be a pipe dream. First solar needs to prove itself, under ideal conditions, (in the desert, under maximum sun, clean conditions), before solar can begin to think about anywhere else.