Bush signs new Energy Bill.....

[Onefast99gsx]

Went home for lunch and watched what Bush had to say about the new energy bill. Tax credits to those who buy energy effiecient vehicles such as hybrids and clean diesel burning cars. The more efficient the more tax credit. Also tax breaks to those who use alternate energy sources such as solar heat to heat your home. I think it was President Reagan that did something similar to this when he was in office. There was a time when quite a few people around my area installed solar panels. I think it is something we should have done a long time ago. I mean... why wouldn't you use the sun to heat your home?

Time to rid the DSM and get a hybrid hah? Perhaps we can hot rod them up. With gas trading at a new record high today of $64/ barrel it's really got me thinking. 93 octane $2.61 here now today. $2.70 likely by weekend. There is an online betting site where you can gamble the odds that the national average will be at $3.00 by New years. I think it's at 15 to 1 odds. I don't know the site though. Perhaps all this is a good thing to help get all the gas guzzling shit off the road like the big SUV's and trucks. I dread the thought of the winter heating bill!!!!!!!

[Shane@DBPerformance]

Originally Posted by Onefast99gsx

I mean... why wouldn't you use the sun to heat your home?

Because it takes a lot amount of energy and money to create solar panels, so they aren't very practical except for people off the grid.

[Onefast99gsx]

My friends dad is an architect. In the 80's he designed some passive heat solar panels that were actually very fair in price and efficient i might add. He sold the designs and they were patented under another company. Solar electricity is expensive, solar heat and water heating doesn't necessarily have to be, but YES it can be. I took a real interest in this stuff in the late 80's and was going to start doing some work with it but then i went to college for computers instead. But i tell you, this would be a great thing to get into. Solar collectors are not a rocket science especially air-to-air passive heating.

Plus solar energy is only practical in the west where they see alo t more sun than here in the North East. Prices for solar panels have gone down than that of when they started . And u have no idea how much mney u can save when u heat ur water through solar energy.

[Shane@DBPerformance]

When they have the technology to make cheap solar electricity, then things should get interesting.

[Onefast99gsx]

Yeah, currently silicon solar wafers are pretty high $$$. It take a pretty big array of them also to get any useful output out of them too.

when i did my research about solar energy...i was able to calculate that if u make a field 200miles by 200miles of solar panels. Those panels would be able to power all of the US with only that. The only problem is coming up with the billions to build it