Working Together for Solar Power

"A man can get discouraged many times but he is not a failure until he begins to blame somebody else and stops trying." John Burroughs

I just finished reading an article by Jeffery Combs, “Time: Your Most Valuable Commodity” and he talked about the concept of Return on Investment (ROI) and expanded on that paradigm to “Return On Time, Action, and Energy” (ROTAE).

With all of the stress on teamwork in this country as a way to be competitive on a global sense, we should think about it on a local basis. I talked about providing schools and/or a homeless shelter with solar panels to provide not only utilities to these facilities, but also much needed revenue.

So what could this team consist of? You have the facilities themselves, the schools and charitable facilities in your area. Then add to that people that support these schools, whether it is the PTA, PTO or booster clubs. The utilities that provide these buildings with their power, instead of building new generating facilities, use the massive space that makes up the coverings of these buildings to generate their own power as well as power for the utilities.

Environmental groups should join the effort, instead of suing municipalities they can work with them to provide clean, pollution free energy. Charities should find support from these groups to not only provide solar power to these facilities, but also ways to improve their energy use.

Working together we can lessen our dependence on foreign energy sources, reduce the impact of these facilities on global warming. Working together to meet our individual and organizational goals not only can we make this a better world, but do so sooner than later.

"What I am doing today is important because I am exchanging a day of my life for it. -Unknown

Cutting your air conditioning bill

“The energy of the mind is the essence of life." Aristotle

Not all savings on your electric bill has to come from reducing the amount of energy you use. There is also the possibility of changing when the power is used, thus receiving a lower electric rate.

Using electricity at night costs less than using it during the day, but I am not sure if you automatically receive that savings. Check with your local power company to see if you do receive the discount or there is something that needs to be done prior to receiving the lower rate.

A Manhattan Skyscraper uses ice to air condition their facility. The tanks holding the water are cooled/frozen at night when the rates are lower. This building saves one million ($1,000,000) dollars a year on their energy bill. Not sure how much of a electric saving during peak hours that is or how much of a reduction that is on the carbon footprint of the building that is.

The company that supplies this system is working on a system for the home and should be available this year. The problem for me is that the system costs $10,000 and for me that is a lot of money. I would have to assume that as the system becomes installed in more houses the price will come down.

Can you supplement the cooling of your building by dumping the ‘heat’ or cooling your air into the water that your building uses each day? Can your water system be used to supplement the cooling of your building by piping it threw the HVAC system? Does your facility have a boiler system which would cost less to operate if the water temperature which is used in the boiler was 10 to 20 degrees warmer?

“And what is a man without energy? Nothing - nothing at all." Mark Twain