Could the average citizen go to the store and buy enough to build a solar water heater?
when I built mine there were none in my area.
so the average citizen in my area didnt even know what one is.
so we shoulnt use average citizen, besides I think Im an above avgerage citizen.
150 years ago the average person had to work full time ( but full time back then was apx 15 hours a day )just to keep a roof over his head, clothes on his back and food on the table. He/she didn't have a lot of spare money to buy non-essentials, such as solar heating supplies.
thats the way it is today.
believe it or not the solar collector I built cost alot because I used copper pipe and copper fittings.
back then ( a couple of years ago ) a 10 ft 1/2 inch copper pipe was apx $6.00 now that same pipe at the same store has more than doubled its price to over $14.00 each.
back then just the pipe and fittings were apx $125.00
so the average person will probably need to dish out well over a thousand dollars to buy one pre made.
150 years ago you could probably buy a 100 acre farm and a house and barn for $1000.00
this isnt 150 years ago , it is 2012 although I sometimes find it hard to believe.
like the copper pipe prices the solar pannel prices are out of
reach for the average citizen who cannot build his own system.
they are priced so high with installation that by comparison its cheaper to use the electric company.
We are pretty darned smart to have come up with the technology to get us where we are. And now we are smart enough to come up with the technology to get us through the bad patch we are going through.
theres nothing wrong with wishful thinking Bill, or hope I just dont think we are smart enough to get through this without causing the suffering of millions if not billions of people world wide.
we live in a profit driven society that refuses to do the right things as long as profit would be lost in doing the right things.
the amount of faith that I have in todays leaders to do the right things is extremely low.
I dont expect todays leaders to do anything that they should
do.
so I dont expect that we will all of a sudden find some magical potion or spell to cast on our patch as you call it.
I prefer to call it a mire and were stuck in it.
up to our necks.
there is one good thing that came out of the copper price increases that I can think of.
I have found that you dont need pipes at all, they cost too much now anyway.
just using cheap wood and plastic sheeting and black paint can heat your house with solar heat.
in fact every window that faces the sun can become a solar air heater that will heat your house free of charge or at least lower your energy bill, Bill.
just by putting up black curtains...
