Yesterday, we signed a contract for installing solar heat for our swimming pool and our hot water. We should have it installed in about 2 weeks! We'll have 11 panels on our roof for heating the pool, an 80-gallon hot water heater for the house, and a small photovoltaic solar electricity panel to provide power to run the hot water heater.
Neither Frank nor I have ever been "Mr. Environmental". Yes, I like low pollution, and given a choice, I'd rather breath clean air than dirty. And I'm willing to pay more to have something environmentally safe than not. But... I've never joined Greenpeace or the Sierra Club or anything at that level. So what gives?
It really boils down to lack of confidence in the government and the energy market. I simply do not trust them. I think they'll go on blindly thinking there is no problem at all, pinning all their hopes on some "future" solution that's always 10 years away. Well, I'm tired of waiting for the "perfect" alternative engergy source. I don't believe them, and I don't trust them. So I'm taking matters into my own hands. I'd much rather pay a lot more money up front now in order to be independent and secure.
For much the same reasons, Frank is seriously thinking about trading in his sportscar for a Mercedes E320 CDI diesel sedan. Diesel gets a lot better gas mileage, and - you can make your own from vegetable oil if you have to. Plus, in the near term, it's a little bit cheaper than regular gasoline.
I think Biodiesel is very likely to be one of the those alternative fuels that catches one, and I'm happy to be at the forefront.
And after the solar hot water project is in place, we're going to slowly start to add photovoltaic electricity (solar electriciy) as well. That will be an even bigger investment, with an even bigger return!
So wake up, folks. Oil is never going to be cheap again, at least not unless the idiots in Washington do something stupid like subsidize it. It's time to start using other ways, other methods. If Bushy had declared a "war on petroleum" instead of a "war on terrorism", we'd be 5 years closer to enerby independence and security than we are now... and we'd have less to worry about with regards to global warming.
And that's the other thing. Just as the price of oil is not going to come down, the weather is probably not going to get any better. Scientists now conclude that the 2005 hurricane season was very likely kicked into high gear by global warming. That means we can expect another bad season in 2006... and on and on. Which means more power outages, and higher energy costs.
Indepedence and security. It's worth the money and the aggravation. Tell Bush to go to hell. We'll just have to fix the country ourselves, one at a time.
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