The Oil Drum

Kenny;
In case you weren't around during an earlier EV discussion, check out this guy who runs two Rav4 EV's off his PV array. A recent issue of Homepower also featured a woman in the Northwest (US) who uses an NEV and PV combination.. and Finally, Pete Seeger uses a Pickup EV Conversion with PV on his barn roof up along the Hudson in NY state.

Rav 4's "RAV4-EV plug-in EV (74,000 miles, 4 years so far) charging directly from our solar rooftop array." http://sealbeach.org/

"The VoltsRabbit recharges its batteries from typical grid electricity or, in this case, from the Johnsons’ solar-electric system." http://www.homepower.com/view/?file=HP117_pg88_Johnson

Pete Seeger (PDF) from Homepower #103 http://www.renewablenys.org/retrieve_file.php?type=article&id=13

Personally, I'm designing a Velomobile for local travel, using both Pedal Power and Electric Motor Support. Trying to make it as lightweight as possible to keep the battery requirements and peddling strain reasonable.. looking at the BionX brushless motors for the Electric Propulsion. I will have both PV and Wind as part of my electricity mix..

Bob Fiske

And from the Seeger Article.. (The hippies are dead.. long live the hippies!)

If there is a human race still here in a hundred years, I think it will be hundreds of millions of little things that will have saved us. Imagine a big seesaw: one end is on the ground with a basket half-full of rocks on it. The other end is up in the air with a basket one-quarter-full of sand on it. Some of us have teaspoons and are trying to put more sand in the basket. Most people are scoffing at us: “Don’t you see the sand is leaking out as fast as you put it in?” We say, “That’s true, but we’re getting more people with teaspoons all the time.” One of these days, you’ll see that basket so full that the whole seesaw will go zoo-oop in the opposite direction, and people will say, “Gee, how did it happen so suddenly?” Us and all our little teaspoons.

Perhaps the solution is to have two EVs,one for even days and one for odd days.
It looks to me that the use of solar and wind for a large percentage of our energy needs involves a large amount of duplication in one form or another. No wind in Iowa? Use the wind in Texas. No sun in Texas? Use the sun in Arizona. No water behind Hoover Dam? Use the water behind Grand Coulee. If you don't have two EVs you would at least need a separate battery pack in the garage so you could charge the EV at night. Extra production capacity plus considerable amounts of storage. Oil ain't cheap and neither will the replacements be cheap. Get used to it!

I agree that it can easily be viewed as an investment, and an investment that can be as expensive as you want it to be, with some limitations of course. My first system was an experiment, where I bought a 45 watt system, charger, and DC lights for $200. It was great to take camping to run my laptop off of when I felt inspired to write due to the wonderful relaxing atmosphere.

However, let's say you want to go a little bigger, with plans on going to a pretty good size. For $1500 you can purchase a charger/inverter combo. These puppies can pump out 2,500 to 3,000 watts, can charge from DC solar or AC input. They output pure sine wave, so it's safe to use them on things like your washing machine, etc. Then you can buy a few panels, with ability to add more panels in the future as money allows.

This is actually what I'm doing for my home I'm building this summer. For the construction of my home, I will have grid power, but after I get my solar system set up, I plan on cutting it off. I will have my inverter, a few panels for a total of around 500 watts of peak power, and every few months, I'll continue adding panels as money allows. My system will start out costing me $3,000 and can grow as the years pass by.

Am I rich? No. Am I middle class? Maybe. Am I a burger-flipper? No.

Others put money in their 401k... I put money into paying off my land, building my house with cash, and then ensuring I have no utilities to eat up my income when I'm retired.

:)

Jokuhl "You also apparently don't understand Solar Power Production."

Relax Jokuhl! You apparently can't read what I wrote and that is your fault. I said most systems are grid tied. That's true. You can invest in a battery back-up system but that could send a $30,000 investment over $45,000. You said the exact same thing. What's the disagreement?

"another voice that says 'investing carefully is for rubes'?"

Didn't say that either. I said that when there was previously cash equity in peoples homes available for people to buy solar or energy saving investments they instead chose to buy consumer products. I didn't say or imply that Nobdody did. I said most people did. That's true.

Your argument that you aren't rich and you make careful investments doesn't hold up as an argument that would apply to more than a small segment of the population.

Premise: You aren't rich
Premise: You make good investments
Conclusion: People who aren't rich make good investments.

Premise to the particular applying to general = false conclusion.

Good Luck!

Sweet! Lets all walk around wearing suits like Vader... A nice little helmet and cape to protect us from UV radiation (since the Ozone layer will be gone), make it air conditioned inside (because it'll get just as not as Venus due to the greenhouse effect). I can just hear it 'rebreathing' now...

hoooooooooooo-prrrrrrrrr....
hoooooooooooo-prrrrrrrrr....
hoooooooooooo-prrrrrrrrr....

Use the force!

Good shoes are expensive. I just bought a new pair of New Balance 926 walking shoes, and that set me back nearly $110. While local people could learn again how to make leather boots, I do worry about the long-term availability of good quality walking shoes. I doubt that stockpiling is a good long-term option, surely most of the synthetic materials would dry up and turn hard and brittle eventually.