Our solar electric system went on the fritz andthat brought us some unexpected blessings Our house is "off the grid"—the only external input is a refill of propane gas every two or three months—and the system worked well until last Friday afternoon when our solar electricity rig crashed, taking down with it all appliances and electronic …
Tag: solar energy
The limits of conservation
While still planning the construction of this house, we received a terrific piece of advice from our friend Roger: Make sure one of the bedroom windows faces east, so you can enjoy, while still in bed, the daily spectacle of a sunrise. We've since read that's a pretty standard consideration when siting a house but …
Buy more panels and call me in the morning
After several suggestions and theories--from two installers, an electrician, Stew, various blog readers, friends, and equipment manufacturers, among others--it turns out that Stew's German orthopedic surgeon-cum-solar energy wizard was right all along. We don't have enough panels in our array to keep us going through the shorter days of winter. Doktor Schmidt says his house …
Home alone
My Cuban relatives in Miami informed me several weeks ago that the weather had been so cold there--an overnight low of 37! the orange trees froze!--that some people didn't go to work. It just wasn't safe. We're retired and have nowhere special to go, least of all to work, so Stew and I stayed home …
There goes the sun
For all our obsessive planning and computing, Mother Nature, a.k.a. “The Lady Upstairs,” has had the last word by unleashing nearly three weeks of gray, clammy and rainy weather that culminated two days ago with a half-inch of snow. We had fretted about not having enough water but our cistern, thanks to a series of …
Watt crisis?
One night, about three weeks ago we had our very own Thomas Alva Edison moment. We went to the kitchen, flipped a switch and the ceiling lights went on. Eureka! Indeed, our $30,000 solar electricity system came alive. Over the next few days the gauges reported more good news: The batteries were "floating," which in …
It's Not Easy, or Inexpensive, Being Green
Building in the country will force us to revisit assumptions and calculations about how much we are willing to pay for a so-called green or sustainable home. Hey man, using photovoltaic cells or wind turbines to generate your own electricity sounds awesomely cool and progressive, doesn't it? Maybe so, but when you get an estimate …
Architectural Plans Take Shape
Voila. The sudden appearance of architectural drawings might suggest this project is leaping forward. Well, hardly. Or at least it doesn't seem that way to us. It has taken over six months, and a change of architects, to get where we are. We're delighted with the results, though. Friends keep telling us this is the …
El Rancho Santa Clara 