Yes friends, the hippies have crawled out of the woodwork for this one. Who new that there were so many hidden in the crevices of Davis?
We were unable to spend a ton of time at the Whole Earth Festival this weekend (we had to rearrange our sock drawers.) But, we did walk through the festival and it was quite a site - several music stages, some dance, a few organized and disorganized drum circles, etc. Most interesting to me, the famous California Green Tortoise Adventure Bus was there. In addition, many long-lost Dead-Heads were wandering around. Frankly, the whole scene was a trip down memory lane...
In addition to the wacky people, there were information stands for solar power roof installations - we hope one day to purchase such panels.
Hope things were just as exciting in your town this weekend. At least the wackos were congregated here in Davis, keeping your towns a little safer?!
5 comments:
Wouldn't it be cool to have solar power roof panels???? I know of a neighborhood in Minneapolis where they got 12 houses to have the panels, to heat their water. I think this is the cool. (and I think the cost of the panels was subsidized by the city or something, which makes it even better...)
Yes, it would be so fantastic. Andrew and I really want to use negative power. In Davis, there is so much sun and very few houses have panels. I think this is nuts. One day when we own our own house, if there is enough sun or wind, we will create our own power... The closest we have is our bathroom radio which is solar- and hand-crank-powered. Not quite enough to make a difference in the world, but nice for sure.
once eric and i live in a house where we will likely be for 5+ years (not so sure about our house right now...3 bedrooms but one is tiny), we would like to invest in geothermal system. so freakin' cool!!!!!!!!! yeah, crazy to live somewhere with tons and tons of sunlight and not have solar panels. here, it's not quite sunny enough to run all your power off of them.
I must admit some surprise about your hostility (well, probably too strong a word) toward the hippies!
My dad got solar panels for our roof over 15 years ago. I have to assume they've gotten better, because we never had much hot water with them. Though we also lived in the woods of New Hampshire. :)
Rachel - you are spot on! We were holed up in our little apartment for the weekend and zoomed over to the festival for a little visit. Something about the contrast between our calm little apartment and the drugged out, dirty, drumming circles. It was too big a contrast. AND, seemed so out of place for this bizzarro festival. As you know, I used to see many Dead shows when younger, and the hippie crowds made sense to me there and I admired their free-spiritedness, druggedness, etc. But, somehow this scene just didn't make sense last weekend. OR, maybe I am just 15 years older?!!!
As for the solar paneling - I chatted with a salesperson this weekend about paneling. I think that on the East Coast most of the paneling was solely to heat water. This always seemed odd to me. I don't know if that was just the old paneling or the East Coast version of panels? BUT, I do know that the solar panels they install here are for electricity. You're right too - there is more sun here for sure. Apparently they cost $30K to install, but there are all sorts of tax deductions. The other fun factoid I learned, was that if the roof gets really hot, the panels are less efficient. So the best time of day for electricity is a cold, sunny morning. Interesting. I also asked if they have a rental program - for folks to rent panels - no such system. It takes too much time to set up the panels initially to make it worth their time to rent. Bummer! They suggest talking to landlords, but I can't imagine what a landlord's incentive would be - the renters pay the electric bills. Bummer.
Post a Comment