On Mon, 14 Jul 2008 14:49:00 EDT, "Pete C"
wrote:

Galen Hekhuis wrote:
On Mon, 14 Jul 2008 08:13:20 EDT, "Paul" wrote:


"Phyllis and Jim" wrote in message
...

snippy
You have to have a real interest in photovoltaics right now to make
this work. It is very expensive up front, and most folks cannot
justify the expense on simply economics. Granted, there are
exceptions where this is an economic alternative to being "on the
grid," but for most folks getting power from the electric company is
still the way to go, high energy prices notwithstanding.

Galen Hekhuis

How about part PV, part wind power?
http://www.unlimited-power.co.uk/Aer...enerators.html
For instance. When it's sunny, it's rarely very windy. You get wind in poor
weather.............all night too

Wind power is a real alternative. There have been substantial
advances made both in power generation and design of the structure.
Here in Florida we too often have the problem of too much wind, so
wind power isn't as popular here as in other places. My wife and I
lived in a section of Maui (Hawaii) that had no utilities (no phones,
no electricity, no water, etc.) but a pretty good supply of wind and
almost everybody had a windmill of some type. Of course, the
maintenance is a bit higher for wind power. The ultimate would be to
have your own little hydroelectric plant. With today's technology
they exist in kilowatt sizes now, and what with sealed bearings and
all they can be almost maintenance-free. But unlike water power, wind
power is available to a lot more people, and at much less expense than
a photovoltaic array.

Galen Hekhuis