Repost - Solar Water Heater Offer from DR Power - New update

Solar Water Heater Offer from DR Power

for comments see original post  http://seanownsthemoon.blogspot.com/2010/03/solar-water-heater-offer-from-dr-power.html

I like DR products, made like tanks and made in the USA.

They are partnering with built by a sister company firm that build solar water heaters, selling a DIY kit that includes solar collector, heat exchanger and a water storage tank that connects to your current hot water heater. Plus the solar collector has a small photovoltaic cell that powers the pump, which A: means you don't need to run any new electric for this system and B: the solar water heater only runs when their is sun enough to power the PV cell. So another one on the plus side is that it looks easy to install in that you don't have to re-plumb your house. 

This is all well and good and I have been considering one, especially with the federal and state tax credits knocking about $4K off the price, plus as a previous DR owner, I get a special $450 coupon.

I initially was confused by Sunward's pricing information, but thanks to their help I have seen that it is pretty straight forward and I hope to be able to place an order in 2010.
Heating water in your home and refrigerating food are about 80% of an average homes energy usage. If I can knock a dent in one of those, that's not a bad thing. Running a fridge on alternate power.....now that's for another blog post on anther day.

UPDATE, August 2011: Well, with my change of vocation at the end of 2009 and the ongoing economic troubles making me save every dime I could for a rainy day, I still haven't bought this system.....but I still want to. Anyone out there own one that wants to give a review? DR and Sunward, any chance you'd long term loan me one to try?  ;)

UPDATE, Feb 2013

Their new website does a much better job of marketing the whole kit. I'm seriously considering buying one still, I have about half the $$ saved up, and while I normally don't like debt, I may finance one soon as this would be a good time to become less grid reliant. We've lost our power multiple times this winter and I really enjoy hot showers.

Solar Water Heater Offer from DR Power

I like DR products, made like tanks and made in the USA.

They are partnering with built by a sister company firm that build solar water heaters, selling a DIY kit that includes solar collector, heat exchanger and a water storage tank that connects to your current hot water heater. Plus the solar collector has a small photovoltaic cell that powers the pump, which A: means you don't need to run any new electric for this system and B: the solar water heater only runs when their is sun enough to power the PV cell. So another one on the plus side is that it looks easy to install in that you don't have to re-plumb your house. 

This is all well and good and I have been considering one, especially with the federal and state tax credits knocking about $4K off the price, plus as a previous DR owner, I get a special $450 coupon.

I initially was confused by Sunward's pricing information, but thanks to their help I have seen that it is pretty straight forward and I hope to be able to place an order in 2010.
Heating water in your home and refrigerating food are about 80% of an average homes energy usage. If I can knock a dent in one of those, that's not a bad thing. Running a fridge on alternate power.....now that's for another blog post on anther day.

UPDATE, August 2011: Well, with my change of vocation at the end of 2009 and the ongoing economic troubles making me save every dime I could for a rainy day, I still haven't bought this system.....but I still want to. Anyone out there own one that wants to give a review? DR and Sunward, any chance you'd long term loan me one to try?  ;)

The question is whether free peoples will choose to remain free, or to submit.

Interesting read about how Iceland basically just shrugged off any chance of joining the EU b/c the Government and its people have voted, again, not to repay money lost by PRIVATE BANKS to foreign citizens.

Let me repeat: The EU is declaring financial war on Iceland b/c the Icelandic .gov won't repay money that PRIVATE BANKS lost to non-Icelandic citizens.

They are going to be denied entry into the EU, banks and brokers are downgrading their bonds and they will be made a pariah on the international stage b/c they aren't willing to jump on the same band wagon as other 1st world governments who all says "banks are too big to fail".

Man I wish my country had balls like this.

On a side note, if Iceland has to live with itself, at least the average Icelandic lady looks like this

Frightening thoughts about world resource usage

From Hugh Pickens, via Slashdot
"Pulitzer prize winning writer Thomas Friedman writes that in few years we may be looking back at the first decade of the 21st century — when food prices spiked, energy prices soared, world population surged, tornados plowed through cities, floods and droughts set records, populations were displaced and governments were threatened by the confluence of it all — and ask ourselves: What were we thinking?'We're currently caught in two loops,' writes Friedman. 'One is that more population growth and more global warming together are pushing up food prices; rising food prices cause political instability in the Middle East, which leads to higher oil prices, which leads to higher food prices, which leads to more instability.' According to the Global Footprint Network we are currently growing at a rate that is using up the Earth's resources far faster than they can be sustainably replenished, so we are eating into the future. Right now, global growth is using about 1.5 Earths. 'Having only one planet makes this a rather significant problem,' says Paul Gilding. 'We either allow collapse to overtake us or develop a new sustainable economic model. We will choose the latter. We may be slow, but we're not stupid.'"

Lets hope we do choose a more sustainable model. I hate to go all socialist all of the sudden, but it occurs to me that certain resources, such as oil, are the bedrock of the global economy and might need to be state controlled. The Libertarian in me hates that idea, however, the father of two who enjoys eating and being warm in the winter is largely OK with it really.

And now for something completely different....

This video rocks, check it out at the Feral Irishman

Bikes are free to ride where they want. Bike lanes are nice, but not necessary. In my neighborhood they start and then peter out so randomly I tend to ignore them. They tend to be in the straightaways, and then at intersections or busy throughways where they would be the most useful, they don't exist.

My wife's cousins in Germany, however, have bike and pedestrian only "roads" between villages that are completely separate and sometimes faster than the paved roads and highways. I've been over there twice and each time I was able to ride my bicycle I had rented between the two villages and the small city where her cousins lived without ever using the car roads. Now thats what I call bike lanes.

Zombie Proof house? Maybe, but I don't want to pay the $$$

This house is awesome, and awe inspiring. Don't think I could afford it though, but still pretty nifty.

Funny one there Tam

Remember back in '50s and early '60s, when we set off something like 900 atomic bombs in Nevada? And how we just let the fallout blow wherever and it landed all over the eastern US? And how it wiped out life as we know it and all that was left from Colorado to the Atlantic were six-legged rats battling two-headed cockroaches in the glowing ruins?

Yeah. Exactly. So shut up with the panic already.

Courtesy of Tam

Book idea

A first aid/gardening/cooking/parenting/emergency preparedness/fishing/backpacking/joke book. Basically everything you would ever need to deal with untoward situations at home or in the woods with step by step directions, advice, lists of things to have on hand, etc. etc.


Know a good soup recipe that cooks well over an open fire? Know the best way to deal with splinters in the finger of your 5 year old? Not sure which corner of the house to go to in case of a tornado? Need a good joke to tell folks after a scary situation? Know how to remove a kids loose tooth? Have a good recipe for rabbit? Want to know what to do after falling in icy water? Interested in solar energy but don't know where to start? Interested in the best snow shovel? best bicycle? Well, my book will be a compendium of useful knowledge in an easy to read format.
I'm thinking about putting this together, maybe even throwing in a few short stories so people would have something to read during power outages with no TV, and some game ideas for how to entertain your kids during those big summer thunderstorms.

Total Suckage...or a lack thereof

So I'm on a call in my basement office and suddenly I hear an unusual alarm go off. Its not a smoke detector, its not my CO detector, not my Radon detector, all of which I have heard go off from time to time. Yep, its the H2O detector I put next to the water heater and sump pump years ago and forgot about. I dont even know when the last time was I replaced that battery. But since apparently the water finishes the electrical circuit, a 9 volt battery last a long time in one of those.
So, I turn the corner and see a 1/2 inch wall of water spreading out quite rapidly from the sump. The pump failed, hence the "lack of suckage" from the title. After jerry rigging the pump to run continously (it was the sensor that failed, so I pulled it apart and hot wired it. I don't recommend doing impromptu wiring on a water submersible pump, but hey, it worked and I didnt die) I ran to the hardware store about 2 miles away and bought a new pump and hurried the hell home. After about 20 minutes I had the old pump out, the new pump in and all was right with the world. Its been raining here almost every day for 5 weeks. Can't wait for monsoon season to be over.....
Makes me want to get a battery backup spare sump pump....

Food for thought - Peak Oil

I'm not sure where I come out on the Peak Oil theory most days, depends on my mood and what I've most recently read. I have the feeling that we'll figure this one out somehow. One journal article I recently read though caught my eye. Instead of debatintg peak oil, it just asks, "Ok, what if..?".
It looks at test cases of societies that have all experienced at least a 20% reduction in petro imports. Its a harrowing look at the 4 major options of what will happen.
1: Your military will seize the remaining oil resources needed for your country.  (US and China are listed as the most likely to follow this role, Japan in 1931-1945 is the example)
2: Your elites will clamp down on everyday Joes and lots of people will go hungry and not have electricity. (North Korea, Latin American Pseudo-democracies, etc)
3:  You will all find a way to live together in harmony, with lesser reources and live happily with fewer calories. (Cuba after the Soviet Collapse)
4: Their will be winners and losers in a large country, so areas with resources will prosper other will crash. (The Southern US after the Civil War is listed as an example)
5: High % of population dies, Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling! Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes... The dead rising from the grave! Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria! (ok, #5 wasn't actually in there, I just added that as an homage to Ghostbusters)

But the idea I took most to heart was this:

In the event of peak oil,we should not expect

either immediate collapse or a smooth transition. People do not
give up their lifestyle easily.We should expect painful adaptation
processes that may last for a century or more.

Let me repeat...
painful adaptation processes that may last for a century or more.

That sucks.

Friedrichs, J.,Global energy crunch: How different parts of the world would react to a peak oil scenario.

Energy Policy(2010), doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2010.04.011