I hear the ice pack around Greenland is not what it once was

Excellent observation, Everest...

In my experience in commercial projects, one of big reasons things like solar water heaters don't get used as much as they should is because engineering firms are afraid of the liability issues of fucking up a design.

I think kissing central AC goodbye would be a good thing. 

Yeah but it's always 74F in your cave...

OK 7500 miles by going through the Panama Canal (which costs on average $2500USD) at 3 months, more or less, or 15,000 miles going through the South Atlantic at around 6 months. Doing the latter would have to be done mid year exposing me to hurricanes in order to be at the horn in the warmest part of the year, December - February.

Conversely, travelling eastward would be about 13,500 miles, 4 and a half months, could begin in December and would expose me to pirates on the west coast of Africa.

Panama Canal is looking better.

Or, hitchhike to LA and fly down for under a grand. It's not as romantic, but you'll have an extra $24K to spend on booze

Zoomie is turning into a Coleridge poem...

Rime of the Ancient Mariner

I've been looking for the illustrated version of that for years.

One night, in Ohio, I cracked open one of my 100-odd year old books and spent a couple hours pacing back and forth with it, reciting The Rime of the Ancient Mariner to the Pogues' Turkish Song of the Damned, agitated by whiskey. Good stuff.

Speaking of illustrated versions of things, I found the most lavish version of the Rubaiyat I've ever seen last year at the thrift store and got it for a dollar. It's out of this world. How I love blowing money in the name of thrift.

I love it when people think all solar hot waters heaters are solar panel powered.

Define Solar Panel?

So Zooms,

Here's my situation... My house is a rancher that faces due east. The roof of course, runs lengthwise north-south, with the eastern part of the roof receiving the most sunlight. The western side of the roof catches a lot of shade. The southern wall is almost always shaded.

The house uses electric heat (eww!).

What I'm thinking of doing is getting my feet wet with a home-brew solar heater on the eastern face of the roof, and if that works out well maybe adding a southward facing remote collector in the north-east portion of the clearing. Here's a little bird's eye view:



Am I pissing into the wind here, or what?

The problem you'll have is heat loss between the collector and the storage/manifold/point of use. I'd make use of the roof space you have by making a set of collectors that are tilted south and pivot over the roof peak to follow the path of the sun. You'd be best to have them tilted 21 degrees from vertical for direct absorption at mid winter. It sounds complicated and expensive but it can be built with scrap, some parts from Home Depot and an old rotisserie motor.

How do you plan to use the heat once you've collected it? Radiant flooring or fan coil extraction? Either way it will only heat your house as long as there is solar radiation to absorb, and will have to be drained on cold nights. I.E. you'll need a wood stove on overcast days and at night.

I had considered making an array of collectors tilted southward as the most efficient way to use the rooftop space, but I was kind of hoping I could get away with a less obtrusive collector lying flat on the roof to kind of prove the concept and keep things really inexpensive.

For the rooftop system I wasn't planning on collecting the heat at all, just blowing it right into the house during the daytime and then using the electric heat at night.

We have a fireplace we could use as well, but I really don't want to start filling the house with soot, and I imagine that it's nowhere near as efficient as a wood burning stove would be. Unfortunately, installing a wood burning stove is not in my budget.

Really, I'm getting tired of these expensive ass electric bills and I'm hoping there's a cheap and easy way to reduce the load on our electric heaters this year, and hopefully use proven success to as persuasion to improve the system next year with thermal collection of some sort.

Dude, seriously. It's SIXTY FIVE FUCKING DEGREES OUTSIDE AND THIS WOMAN HAS THE CENTRAL AIR CONDITIONER ON BECAUSE SHE WON'T OPEN THE WINDOW BECAUSE THERE ARE BUGS OUTSIDE!

There are two screens that need to be replaced on the windows that require two people to put it in place, one outside and one inside and she refuses to help me simply because of her phobia of open windows.

Back to the AC... There's a kill switch in the attic for the AC that I would just go up there and throw, except she'll just call her dad (who does whatever she says) and he'll come over and turn it back on. If I cut the wires he'll wind up either fixing it or paying someone to fix it.

And remember how she goes into hysterics at the mention of insulating film on the windows? Well, obviously any heat collector I put on the roof is going to have to be unobtrusive. At least initially.

Man, I really need to get this woman into some kind of psychiatric treatment. She's fully aware that she has anxiety disorders but it's really becoming clear to me that she's only getting worse and worse over time. It's like each year there's one more ridiculous behavior added to the list that somehow costs us tons of money.

So anyway, keeping the heat at 65 and wearing heavier clothing during the winter is NOT what happens in our house, which is why I think there may be a benefit to solar heating even if it's during the daytime only, and even if it's not the optimal set up.

Hey, did I mention how all summer long she kept the central air on at like 70, and then kept the electric heat on in our daughter's room so she wouldn't get cold at night? Yes, that's right... She ran the air conditioner and the heat at the same time.

All... summer... long.

I don't know where your unit is located, but you could potentially route a small duct from the outside to the return side of the unit w/ a manual volume damper.  When it's nice outside, you could kill the condensing unit & open the damper.  The central unit would still be on and blowing cool air, but you wouldn't be using electricity to run the condensing unit.

Hmm... I might be able to work something like that out except I don't have any money for supplies cause I just gave the electric company $700!

Doh!

It's an excellent suggestion though! Maybe I'll be able to get that in place for the spring time.

Dude you totally should not have knocked her up. Pregnancy releases hormones that do shit to their minds. You're boned, man.

Tell me about it.

That went without saying...

I can't kill her, her father begs not to on a weekly basis.

 :'(

No jacuzzi for you then, ever.

What, are you crazy? If we don't get a jacuzzi then how are we ever going to get rid of all the excess ice our fridge keeps on making?

You should just sell your house and build a cabin.

Make the bitch deal with chopping any wood she needs for heating, and the managing of an ice box if she wants anything cold.

That'll learn her.

Yeah, a cabin with no windows.

Perfect plan!

I keep the air in my house at 78-80 degrees all summer long, but when I go to sleep my roommate turns it down to 71!  I wake up freezing cold.  I bitched her out for it and she still did it again.  The I said, "if you touch that thermostat I will start pawning off your things one by one to pay the bill."  She owes me $800 for back rent and bills, so I used that to my advantage.  I keep the windows open now since it is nicer outside, but she still runs the AC when I am not there, even with the windows open.  It is driving me fucking crazy.  I feel you cock'n'balls, I feel ya.

____________________(_)_)===D

I'm lucky le wife is worried about the AC affecting her voice. Read: I can use the AC whenever, and she never runs it when I'm not around

I pulled off a major coup last night. While she was at work I turned off the AC and put a box fan in one of the windows. When she came home she tried to complain about the humidity but in the end she acquiesced and the AC stayed off and the fan stayed in the window.

It was great victory.

______________________~>(_)_)===D

Baby steps brah. Baby steps. I know what I'm talking about.

I love it when people think all solar hot waters heaters are solar panel powered.

Define Solar Panel?

Si and I know what eachother are typing about....but for you, Solar panel in the context I used it....what your average person would consider a solar panel.