On Saturday, July 18, 2020 at 9:12:46 AM UTC-10, jay wrote:
> On 7/18/20 8:56 AM, Sheldon Martin wrote:
> > On Fri, 17 Jul 2020 wrote:
> >> On Friday, July 17, 2020 John Kuthe wrote:
> >>>
> >>> I see the coal cars on the trains, I'm not stupid! We still do a LOT of STUPID 19th Century things!
> >>>
> >>> John Kuthe...
> >>>
> >> Why didn't you install solar panels on your roof? You could have generated
> >> your own electricity and probably sold some back to your local power company.
> >
> > I doubt his roof has enough area at the correct exposure for solar
> > panels to produce much. Where I live a lot of people place the solar
> > panels in their yard on posts that are cemented into the ground so
> > they're up off the ground so they can mow around them and so they can
> > brush the snow off. They don't like to place them on their roof as
> > they will cause the roof to leak... I doubt it would work well on that
> > tile roof anyway, they'd have to drill a lot of bolt holes.
> >
> > I thought about installing solar panels here and even had a company do
> > a survey. I have several acres they could use but I didn't want to
> > look at those ugly panels and there would be a lot of mowing and snow
> > removal.
> Very inaccurate bullshit snipped.
>
> You are absolutely 100% correct about adding solar panels to ones roof.
> It is something Kuthe might do though since he is restoring a tile roof.
> He could now go back and drill a lot of holes and install some panels or
> maybe add some skylights.
>
> I see acres of solar arrays in areas that I travel. They are NOT a
> thing of the future. Guarantee you they are not only powering small
> calculators and toothbrushes. Same for wind turbines. You may not see
> many around your house though. Transmission lines have been here on this
> earth for a long time and they can transmit energy regardless of source
> of such energy.

I don't know how things are on the mainland, but solar panels are pretty much a thing of the present on this rock where electricity is about 35 cents/kWh.

The college across the street recently installed solar panels in a couple of the parking lots. I can't say how much power it's generating but the important part for me is that it provides shade from the hot Hawaiian sun. Hopefully, the panels can withstand a hot Hawaiian hurricane.