November 13, 2005
Oh well - no solar
My water heater's been less and less happy over the past few years, and I'd been thinking about solar energy anyway, so I called Performance Systems Contracting to take a look at possible solar water or power here. (They'd done earlier energy efficiency work on my house.)
Rob Garrity came up and climbed to my roof, though he couldn't go up on it because my roof also needs replacement.
Rob Garrity prepares to ascend with Solar Pathfinder.
Solar Pathfinder.
Collecting reflection data with the Solar Pathfinder.
Unfortunately, the report (52KB PDF or 68KB selectable) came back negative, even for the gentler requirements of solar hot water. I knew I had two box elders in the way and a butternut tree with some limbs over the roof, but the larger problem seems to be the birches up the hill, and perhaps the hill itself.
Since the solar doesn't seem likely to work out in the near future, I'll probably go with an on-demand natural gas water heater.
Posted by simon at November 13, 2005 3:21 PM in energy , my houseNote on photos