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Dear friends and neighbors,

I have been researching green options for my home. I talked with Chesapeake (formerly Wind and) Solar and find that solar hot water is much more accessible than PV power, but .... still a little steep. A little more research, and I'm tempted to go DIY. Found one company that designs a system specifically to be easy for the homeowner to install herself. A recent Mother Earth News article goes farther with suggestions for building a system from scratch. All designs require sunlight, of course, but in some designs the sunny spot doesn't have to be right square on your roof.

I thought ..... if maybe a half-dozen or a dozen of us got together, among us we might have enough savvy, guts, basic carpentry or plumbing know-how, to help each other put in solar water heaters at each of our homes. If several of us decided to go with the pre-built install-your-own system, we could maybe bargain for a lower group price. In the process, we might even learn enough to call it a marketable skill. We'll have experienced installations on a variety of houses of different styles and ages, each with unique issues.

If you don't feel up to the DIY, but want a solar water heater, and are willing to let a group of inexperienced locals practice on your house, please join in. We will be bound by building codes, so at least that's a whole set of mistakes we WON'T be making.

Whaddaya say, folks? Anyone interested?

Regina

Regina--I know that we could be very interested. And thanks for creating this page. May I suggest that the ongoing research (and reports, once things are underway) on the project (costs, benefits, challenges, etc.) be shared here, so that a reference guide is developed, and then we can each do our own cost-benefit decision as to when and if to jump in on this. Given the (not terribly surprising) news in today's Post ("Power outages forecast for Maryland; Brownouts, high rates blamed on deregulation") this may be sooner than we think! --Dwight



This is really very interesting. Do we have any figures on how much it would cost per home to do this? I would love to see RP covered with solar panels, but until the costs come down... probably not. But this sounds like a great place to start. I will be checking back often to see what develops here. I am very hopeful for our littel green town. :-) SueLew


SueLew
SueLew
Latest page update: made by SueLew , Feb 16 2008, 11:15 AM EST (about this update About This Update SueLew Edited by SueLew


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