Tel: (845) 626-2627   Home   Contact  
Sun Volt

Sun Volt Solar

earth, the final frontier

Clean Energy, Clean Environment

We are at a cross roads in human history, we can choose to continue on as we have been, or we can make a change to improve our future and quite possibly the future for several generations to come. We are here to promote energy independence, a better environment, a secure future and a higher return on investment for your hard earned dollar. It is what I believe in, it is why I am in the solar business.

It's about energy, Stupid.

25 Nov 07 | Commentary, Conservation

Remember when Bill Clinton ran against George H. W. Bush (Aka Bush senior)?  He had this sign that he hung in his campaign headquarters that read “It’s about the economy, Stupid.”  It was a sort of reminder of what the important issue of the day was for most Americans, plus it sort of chided the opponent at the same time.

This time around, we are dealing with a more fundamental issue:  Energy.  We need energy, as a society. We need energy as a species.  We will die without energy.  Energy produces food, clothing, housing, warmth from the cold, employment, communication, commerce, entertainment, and in reality, society itself.  Without a source of energy, the world as we know it, will end.

There are several things that can be done.  First of all, federal, state, and local politicians need to be made aware of the situation.  This means becoming active, registering to vote and becoming active in all elections.  The internet is a wonderful thing.  There is a lot of information on how your US or State representatives or senators have voted at Project Vote Smart.  This is a great way to keep an eye on what your representatives are doing.  The next greatest thing about the internet is e-mail.  Anytime your representative does something you don’t like, let them know.  If you are a registered voter, your e-mail will be read by somebody.  Finally, one more great thing about the internet, you can find all the contact information for your representatives including local phone numbers, local office locations, etc.

All of this is important, as we need to keep hammering away at the US congress in particular to change the energy course of this country.   Further more, talking about this issue among family and friends without being too obnoxious will help to push the issue along.

If we run out of food or clean water, nothing else matters.

Tags: , , ,

25 Nov 07 | Commentary, Conservation | Comments (0)

President Bush has done more for the Environment than anyone else

18 Nov 07 | Commentary

It is very heartening to see how much the younger generation has become interested in the environment and renewable energy. It is like they believe their future is at stake, and they are right. There is a movement afoot called Power Shift 2007 which is aimed at creating a NextGeneration political/environmental movement. Then there are blogs like WattHead, Solar Power Rocks, Cleanergy, and so on which have a renewable energy theme.

It is not just the younger generation either. Many people have become concerned with our government’s blatant disregard for the environment, our current energy situation and the lack of action or just plain wrong actions by our president, George W. Bush. His answers have been to invade a country, open up the ANWR to drilling and give billions of dollars in subsides to the already filthy rich oil companies. This has lead to a backlash of sorts on the administration as more and more state and local governments are enacting their own energy standards. Some states (Vermont is one) have sued the US EPA in order to force them to do their job. I think it took this sort of idiocy for the majority of Americans to wake up and finally start speaking up.

Because to this anti-Bush environment effect we are seeing and hearing a lot more about the environment and energy issues in the national media. I only hope this trend continues and that Congress and the 2008 presidential hopefuls are paying attention.

Speaking of Congress, as they take the Thanksgiving holiday break, their leadership has something to think about. Many people have chosen to call their Senator or Representative and voice their disapproval over the direction of the 2007 energy bill. This has caused Senator Harry Reid and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to reconsider stripping the bill of most of it’s substance. This contact needs to continue, if you have not called your senator or representative, take a few minutes to do it today. The pressure must be maintained if we are going to keep some of the provisions in the bill that give the ordinary home owner tax incentives to install solar and small wind power.

Here is a little graph from Solar Power Rocks to give some perspective:

Graph Iraq war spending vs renewable energy spending

This represents the cost of the Iraq war, versus the amount of money the government has invested in renewable energy. As you can see, the priority has been to invade Iraq which, as of yet, has not produced any more oil than what was available pre-invasion. Seems like a bad plan

As the blog writer points out, the total cost will be much higher, by the time you figure in the cost of VA health care for the now disabled veterans:

Accrued liabilities for U.S. federal employees’ and veterans’ benefits now total $4.5 trillion. Indeed, our debt for veterans’ health and disability payments has risen by $228 billion in the past year alone…The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the interest payments on the money borrowed to finance the Iraq war will total $264 billion to $308 billion.

So, how many solar thermal plants, photovoltiac arrays, geothermal plants, wind generators, wave generators and so on could that money purchase? Likely enough to provide 2/3 (conservative estimate) or more of our national electrical demand. Sick indeed.

To add insult to injury, China is beating us in renewable energy investment.  China for God sakes.

Tags: ,

18 Nov 07 | Commentary | Comments (0)

Radiant floor heating

12 Nov 07 | Conservation, Environment, Geothermal, Solar Hot Water

Buildings use a lot of energy. Heating, cooling, hot water supply, lighting, and appliances can use lots of electricity, oil, gas, etc. Each BTU that is used requires that something be converted from fuel to energy and by products. The by products in question depend on the type of fuel, but they can be anything from CO2 to NOx, SOx, and mercury to name but a few. As you can see, the more energy efficient our homes become, the less it will cost to energize them and the better off it will be for the environment.

I spoke with somebody on the phone this morning about solar space heating. This is a topic of conversation I had with my brother in law last year at some point. Basically, in this climate, effective solar space heating consists of passive solar design and or radiant floor heating.

Conventional hydronic heating equipment e.g., radiators and base board convectors, requires water temperatures above 140 degrees Fahrenheit (60 C). During the coldest months of the year, December and January, a flat plate collector would not be able to collect enough energy to heat the water to that temperature. Evacuated tube collector may be able to, but the volume of water would not be enough. Most HVAC professionals agree that solar coupled with a radiant floor heating system, where water temperatures only need to be about 85 degrees, works the best.

Radiant floor heating is a really cool idea. These systems work great when a house is built on a concrete slab. Several inches of rigid foam installation is used to insulate the concrete slab from the earth. The heating loops are embedded in the concrete slab and the entire system can be broken up into one room zones. The heating loops use low cost PEX (Cross-linked polyethylene) pipe, which is easy to work with. With a solar system, a small conventionally fired (oil or gas) furnace is required in case there are several days of cloudy weather that prevent the solar collectors from working.

Obviously this type of installation requires a great deal of pre-planing in order to work right. House siting, orientation, solar panel positioning, tilt angles, and heat storage tank options all need to be worked out before the house is built. A new house needs to be designed from the bottom up to accommodate solar radiant floor heating, passive solar design can also be incorporated to enhance the thermal design.

In addition to solar, radiant floor heating works will with ground source geothermal heat pumps. These systems can supply a good deal of heat to larger structures that may be too large to heat with solar collectors alone.

Retro-fitting older houses with radiant floor heating is also possible. Older homes with wood floors require a number of compromises to get the system to work efficiently. In addition to that, before a radiant heating system is installed in an older home, the structure should have a complete energy audit done. This will ensure that the building envelope is where it should be regarding insulation, weather stripping, windows, etc. It makes no real sense to install an energy efficient system if all that energy is going to go out the window anyway.

Tags: , , ,

12 Nov 07 | Conservation, Environment, Geothermal, Solar Hot Water | Comments (0)

The politics of Energy

09 Nov 07 | Commentary

It seems that there are some problems with the energy bill working its way through the Senate. Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM) is attempting to move the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) from the Senate Energy Bill to the Agricultural Bill under current debate. Without the RFS, the coalition that supports the bill (including several midwest Republicans) will fall apart, basically causing the entire thing to collapse under a filibuster, led by Senator Pete Domenici.

This is a deplorable state of affairs, oil is approaching and will likely exceed $100.00 per barrel. All signs seem to say that we are reaching global peak oil output. Let your representatives know, we need this legislation to move the nation away from oil toward renewable energy and it is being held up by an anti-renewable energy senator with his head stuck in the sand… or somewhere else.

Furthermore, Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority leader Harry Reid are considering stripping out several key parts of the legislation to get it passed. This includes the production tax credits for wind and solar, along with the federal renewable portfolio standard.  This watered down bill is exactly what the republicans and the president want.  I think that the original energy bill is something that is worth fighting for, and is one of the reasons why we (the rest of the country) elected a democratic majority in the house and senate.   As one fellow blogger put it:

Let President Bush veto a critical energy bill at a time of record high energy prices and explain that to the American people. Let House and Senate Rs explain why they blocked efforts to save Americans energy and money, help kick our oil addiction, invest in clean, homegrown, renewable energy sources and put America on a path to a sustainable and prosperous energy future.

But DO NOT cave in.

This isn’t the “change” we voted for in November 2006, and we’ll be voting for new leaders in 2008 if our current set can’t get the job done. We’re behind you Pelosi, but not if you cave. We want a Power Shift, and we’ll get it!

Amen, brother, amen.

Tags: ,

09 Nov 07 | Commentary | Comments (0)

Let's just give up…

01 Nov 07 | Commentary

I have been involved in a rather lengthy discussion on my other blog about Small Wind Turbines.  Basically, I posted about the new zoning ordinance being debated in my town.  The crux is the new zoning ordinance proposes to only allow small wind turbines on lots that are 5 acres or greater.  I feel this is much to restrictive for the average homeowner, most of whom reside on a 1-2 acre lot.

A commenter called to question my use of pictures (one picture of a wind turbine, the other of a coal fired power plant).  Basically she (or he) stated that the pictures where ridiculous and not a fair comparison.  Amongst all this, the commenter stated:

Your example of 20% residential “penetration” of wind (plus solar, plus inverters and banks of batteries) is a matter of only 4-5% of total electricity use. Still just camping. And the coal (or nuclear, or big hydro) plant’s still there.

Okay, small wind power will never provide all the electricity we need.  Neither will solar, so lets just give up.  The hell with it, why even bother.

My reply is:

A 4-5 percent reduction is a good start. A small amount of a huge quantity is still a very large number…

I think that people need to realize that we are headed for a lot of trouble.  There are the environmental issues; global warming, pollution, extraction etc.  Then there are supply problems, finite resources being consumed at alarming rates.

Eventually (if we haven’t already) we will hit peak oil production.  As the Hubbert graph shows, things go downhill from there.  Natural gas supplies will also run out, this will be a huge hit on the agricultural sector as natural gas supplies the ammonia for fertilizers needed to grow all the food that we eat.  Coal is abundant and cheap but is a very dirty fuel source, dumping mercury, uranium, thorium, sulfates and nitrates into the air, not to mention the ever present CO2.

The anti-environmentalist all jump up and down and say the change in climate has nothing to do with human activity, then offer some theory on why this is.  Fine.  Even so, what does it hurt to install solar panels, or a small wind turbine?  By installing this equipment, does it hurt anyone?  Does it damage anything?

So let it be, you go your way and I’ll go mine.  (In the long run, I’ll bet I am right, though).

Tags: , ,

01 Nov 07 | Commentary | Comments (0)