solar stuff

My sister expressed some concerns, after learning that I compost my own manure, that I had fallen into some Ted Kaczynski-esque state of being, ready to mount my own initiative against the machine.  And when I mentioned it in my Microbiology class, one of my students asked if that was something I opened with on a first date.  Cute.  So, let me explain- I live in the desert.  I live off-grid.  I have a septic tank about 300 feet down from the house at a 100 foot drop (roughly). My only water is that which I collect off my roof (~9000 gallon capacity).  You do the math.  Do you really think I am going to use gallons of water to flush all that distance, when I could grow something instead??  A supportive ex-Peace Corps colleague of mine, when he read my blog, wrote and told me he has a friend that digs a hole, craps in it for 6 months, plants a tree, and moves on.  Sheer genius.

Solar Water Collectors

So, anyway, you can see above that my hair is not matted beyond what would be within normal range, my fingernails are stubby short, and I am relatively clean.  When I go off the deep end, my descent will be more spectacular.  More importantly, however, is that next to me, you can see my solar water collectors.   The water is sent to my small "mechanical room" below.  Terry has this set up such that I have a 10 gallon electric hot water tank attached to my 80 gallon water tank that receives the water from the rooftop collectors using a heat-exchange mechanism.  If I want hot water, I heat up the small tank for a few minutes so I am not running 10 gallons of water just to get some hot stuff.  No waste.  Then the hot/warm water from the large tank enters the small tank as I use the preheated water.  The water is pumped to the roof collector from the big tank when the temperature differential is about 10 degrees F.  The hot water also circulates under my concrete slab in the lower floor to give me warmth in the winter.  Even when the solar collector has read 24F on a very cold night, my water temperature in the 80 gallon tank does not dip below 70.

Sanyo HIT 210W Panels

On the small, south facing balcony roof, we have placed 4 Sanyo 210W HIT panels. They just fit.  This provides all my electricity and, at this point, provides ample.  The cables run down to the small shed on the back of the house that stores the batteries, controller, etc.  I have enough power storage potential that, to add on, I would simply need to add 4 batteries. I still hesitate to use electricity, rarely keeping more than one light on at a time, even though Terry tells me it's free and comes from the sun.  I get that, but it's like using your turn signals, if it doesn't become habit, someone will rear end you some day.  So I'm the one on the empty road, late at night, with no other cars around, using her turn signal to go right..

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