Peter’s Raw Materials

Tag: energy

  • Solar Power update (part 8)

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    (continued from part 7) So here we are. February 2010. We had our solar array online for close to a year now.What are the first year impressions of our life with a 1.2kw solar array in our front yard? First, if you read the initial installment of my solar power posts you will notice that we built a post with a mount laid out to hold 12 panels. Because 200W panels aren’t cheap we only populated half of the array at first. These…

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  • Solar Power (part 4)

    (continued from part 3) As a we are waiting to go operational I have some time to ponder the pros and cons of my $15,000 investment, alternative energies in general and solar in particular. Despite my feeling of doing something good for the environment and (maybe) for our bottom line I know that this technology is young, even though it has been around for decades, and like my computer the equipment I am installing might be outdated in a few years. Our calculations…

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  • Solar Power (part 3)

    (continued from part 2) Together Alex and I started digging in my front yard in early October while our supplies were on their way. There was to be a big 3×3 feet hole, almost seven feet deep. This was where our steel post was going. The main hole soon got too narrow for two people and I started digging the 24 inch deep trench for the electric line going from the post to the house. You want to keep that as short as…

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  • Solar Power (part 2)

    (continued from part 1) Alex, my solar assessor – his company is Solar Systems of Indiana – came over one cold winter day early 2008 with his Solar Pathfinder and a device called a Kill-A-Watt. The Solar Pathfinder is used to determine the best place on your property for a solar installation and how much sunlight you can actually harvest taking into consideration stuff like tree line and geographical location. The Kill-A-Watt is such a good investment that I got one myself and…

    Read more: Solar Power (part 2)