0tterbot wrote:
"Jock" wrote in message
news
the solar component the govcos are patting themselves on the back stupid
over
is going to amount to nothing the way everyone is buying a plasma /
whatever
big screen TV and whatever other Chinese appliantology (RIP F.Z.) to fill
the
living room. Yearly power consumption per capita has soared.
The new residentials that need the power the solar is meant to save now
have
less than before and the taxpayers (us good guys) have to pay the bill for
solar initiatives and desal then new power stations as required in the
future.

That's a great price for your solar all the same.
Jock

i accept what you're saying & it TICKS ME RIGHT OFF that power suppliers (of
whatever kind) feel the need to "respond" to "consumer demand".

we have solar power chez-moi, (with a wee wind turbine that sadly doesn't do
as much as i'd like - just wait till we get a whomping great one & then
we'll be sweet!!). the system is a little old & rather small but the fact is
that it's plenty good enough because we are not connected to mains power
(this property never has been). consequently, we rapidly adjusted our
"demands" downwards when we realised what the limitations are, what we can
do & what we can't. if we wanted to use bucketloads of electricity we would
have to pay a lot of money for a lot of petrol for the generator - but far
easier, cheaper & much more desirable to downgrade our expectations & it's
simply not that we have inferior quality of life or anything like that. we
just don't burn through power like other people do, it's not worth it to us.
as our system improves, we may use more power or we may not (minimalism can
be addictive!) but the fact is that when one suffers for excess electricity
use, one rapidly adjusts downwards!

since we are all aware that massive quantities of mains power is wasted en
route to people's houses (about 10%) - and even more is wasted inside
people's houses, i think the cart has been put before the horse (quite
possibly in the name of "economic growth") & it makes me livid but i won't
go into that here :-)

the reality check that much of society is heading for rapidly is going to
come hard for some of them. but it can't come soon enough imo.

as a general comment to o.p. & everyone, a big step forward will be when
inexpensive systems are commonly installed to people's homes that have no
batteries, but rather, are simply wired into the grid & excess is stored via
the grid & power is taken via the grid. going to canberra (which i do
sometimes) always breaks my heart (tee hee), but _especially_ when one
considers that it's sunny there almost every day of the year, yet so few
residents have that type of system i have described (which is a fairly new
idea, but one that i think will go off).

if there was a law against being greedy & dumb, the questions of sufficient
clean power for everyone & questions of pollution & so forth simply wouldn't
be issues at all.
kylie


As an example of waste air conditioning
we looked at the cost and decided no installing instead an idea I saw
on one of the English programs about house refurbishment
Pumping air through buried pipes results in very cool air for the cost
of burning z very small light bulb and a tiny percentage of a/c
It did involve some trenching and finding some plastic pipe being
still cheaper than just the install labour cost of one split a/c
over all an immensly satisfing outcome at least 4 times a year

( 2 metres down the earth never gets above 5 Deg C) in Brisbane