Where oh where is America going?

[skeet]

[QUOTE=PJgunner;331281]Skeet. I did not say solar energy was inefficient. I'm saying the method of achieving it is vulnerable to the vagaries of wether, IE, strond down bust winds ans hail larger than hald inch, and let's face it, while solar would begreat in my neck of the woods due to probably 275 to 300 days of sunshine, one nasty butt thunderstorm with serious down burst winds or large hail and it'll be a multi-million dollar repair job every time. Arizona has one of the highest rates of summer thunderstorms in the nation, It was number two after Florida until this damn drought hit. Things may be turning a round some as I've seen more thunderstorm activity this year than in the last two years combined.
My points are a photovoltaic cell is highly vulnerable to hail damage. Those very shiney curved metal heat collector would have to be kept polished under normal circumstances and would definitely lose some efficiency due to denting from hail stones. My point being neither system is going to be perfect and maybe not nearly perfect enough in the long run. mainenance will be damnably high and guess who foots the tab?

PJ I thought I understood you. And with some of your points I agree..but I had a couple of solar water heaters back east..in Md with not as much sun as we get out here. It was very efficient and worked even better than I expected. Never had any damage from hail or high winds but it was a concern. 20 yrs of free water heating and an instant on electric water heater when we had many days of no sun. Heck even at near zero in the winter the water got up to 130 degrees. What I did to protect them is something the electric company did with photovoltaics back east. I applied a plastic standoff sheet over them to protect from hail.. Never needed 'em though. Unhappily you must understand. We as consumers foot the bill for what happens now. As was said..they are guaranteed a 10% profit so we pay for repairs to existing supply facilities and even pay 10% extra for costs on any repairs. Sheesh. There are ways to protect most anything. and PV cells are pretty tough. Maybe they will come up with hydrogen fuel cell technology(we really have it now)...just cracking water into H and O. But then they would have to charge us for water at a very high rate... The reason it can't be used now is they can't find a good way to charge us for all this stuff...YET!!

BTW PJ..we are seeing more T storms in our area(had one bout an hour ago..got 2 tenths) than I have seen since moving here. The local folks are really surprised at the amount of rain we have received this year. We've had more than twice the average of 3 1/2 inches so far this year..and 5 months to go. my garden is doing great. Squash cabbageand taters already and beets are ready too. beans will be on next week. Corn is late..Cold spring. Fruit trees and berries are looking good. Have some next year... Apples later this week..

[PJgunner]

Trying to grow a garden here is an expensive excercise in futility.
My next door neighbor keeps trying but $200 to $300 water bills every month kind of took the fun out of it, not to mention the savings.
When I lived in Nevada, we had a huge garden including several fruit trees and a humongous strawberry patch. What can I say? I love strawberries.
Here in AZ, when I first moved into the house, we had a beautiful pine tree in front of the house. That was 30 years ago. Almost 15 years of drought killed that tree and we had to have it removed. For a while we were a bit ahead on out rainfall, but now we've dropped back to being behind. We have under normal circumstances a Monsoon season and a winter rain period. Usually, if one is a bit short the other makes up for it. It hasn't happened that way in almost 15 years.
I have my own theory and it ain't global warming.
Paul B.

[DON WALKUP]

what ever happened to: "a government OF the people, FOR the people, BY the people..."?

i agree with term limits...NO one should be able to serve in ANY elected position for more than 10 years in his/her lifetime.

[skeet]

[QUOTE=DON WALKUP;331305]what ever happened to: "a government OF the people, FOR the people, BY the people..."?

It's still that way..of the people by the people for the people who think the rest of us should have exactly what THEY feel we should have. The people to them refers to the aristocracy..meaning themselves and their cronies

and I feel no more than 8 yrs in any position..no moving up..or down

[Larryjk]

Don Walkup, I agree, but people keep re-electing them.