Get Solar Gain

Context

Nova Scotia isn't exactly sun capital of the Northern Hemisphere but it does get loads of sun, and more than enough to be useful for heating or generating electricity in combination with [[Conserve_Energy?|conservation]].

Process

Kevin Jeffries, formerly of Avalon House, has an interesting talk on conserving up to, but not past, the point of not enjoying your lifestyle. His example: if you really enjoy usinging a blow dryer each morning, and you're miserable without it - you have to use a blow dryer. But are you miserable if you switch to compact flourescents? Are you miserable if your house is so well insulated that it can be heated with $400 worth of energy per year?

You can see many examples of working solar homes in Nova Scotia on the page http://solarns.ca/ ... click on the "SHIP" logo. You can surf the database geographically, or by category of system, for instance photovoltaic or hot water Solar Collectors, or you can just look at pictures. Click on a picture to see all the facts for a house.

Gotchas

Most people have a vastly exaggerated idea of how much energy is available from sunlight. Do a back-of-the-envelope calculation to check your ideas. For example:

Let's mount solar panels on the roof and trunk of the car and replace the engine with an electric motor!!

Alternatively

The Upshot

The upshot is, you have to learn to conserve. Plan B is to replace energy sources with renewables without making lifestyle changes. The calculations above, and any other that you care to do, show that it can't work. You can't replace more than a tiny fraction of our current energy consuption with PV, wind, or biofuel. We need to go on to Plan C.