Electric Tankless Water Heater Caveats

We’ve posted on tankless water heaters before, but an inquiry from a client prompts us to revisit some of our reservations about tankless units. Wonderful idea, of course, good for energy, wish i’d thought of it myself, and all; but do your homework and keep your eyes open. Claims made for tankless heaters are larger than they seem in real life.

  First, flow rate. You need at least three gallons per minute of hot water at 125 degrees fahrenheit to operate a laundry machine, dishwasher, shower, kitchen sink or any combination of two faucets or appliances in the house. if your teenager is in the shower and you go downstairs to start the dishwasher, you will be cited by Family Services in this litigious society, for cruelty to a teenager. Sharing the output of a tankless electric unit is dicey. And families living in multi-bathroom houses will, sooner or later, need to share that output.

   Second, power needs. The only electric tankless that begins to fill the bill for a family is something like the Bosch AE 125 . The power requirement of this water heater is app. 125 amps at full load. Do you have a 100 amp service feeding your entire house, as I do? Fuhgeddabouddit. You can’t install electric tankless in your house. Do you have a 200 amp service? Expect to give away 60% of that capacity while using hot water, which means that you can’t operate your electric range, air conditioning, and clothes dryer all in tandem with this water heater. You have to do what we call “load management,” in which you stop to think, ok, toaster is 110 watts, dryer 4500, range is 8000 unless I only use one burner, turn up the air conditioning thermostat, and,,,, ok, now we can do hot water. And if you have electric heat, you’ll have to shut some of it off to avoid an overload, even with a 200 amp service. No, you can’t have a 300 amp service on a house, not without paying lots of money. Perhaps in the “home of the future.”

   If it’s just two of you in the house, or if the kids only come home for Christmas, this all may work out well. You can save up to 25% over electric tank hot water by virtue of  lowering your standby costs (the expense of keeping the tank hot and losing heat to the surrounding air). If your house is large, full of kids, or if you have a big kitchen and you’re always in it, beware.

    Electric tankless water heaters are growing in popularity, and they should. But i’m always concerned when a past or potential client buys one off the internet and asks for a quote to install it. My bill for installation will commonly exceed the cost of the water heater, if indeed I can even shoehorn it into the house’s electrical system. Then I’m delivering the bad news, the phone goes “click,” and the unhappy client is off down the road to a plumbing company which knows not-so-much about electrical loading and is willing to take the client’s money for installing an inadequately sized unit. Happens several times a year.

  Other technologies are more practical. Oil, natural gas, LP gas, almost any fuel other than electric power makes for a better performance in water heating, due to the ability of those fuels to deliver larger amounts of energy instantaneously to the water, exceeding electricity by far in the critical category of  “recovery rate.”  Watch your loading, watch your pricing, beware of claims made by salesmen bearing gifts, and consider all  your options. Sometimes a heavy insulation blanket and a simple timer can turn an old electric tank into a lean, mean green machine, for a lot less money.

Solar PV Primer, Simple Concepts

  The house at left is roofed with solar panels. No doubt there’s a real roof under there, but someone has cleverly configured photovoltaic panels to cover the roof so neatly that the eye sees only tempered glass and aluminum frames. The roofing material under the panels will not deteriorate, seeing no sunlight, clomping feet or ice and snow, so its life should be at least as long as that of the panels. The panels are attached flat to the roof, with a slight standoff for cooling air, so wind forces should not be a problem in heavy weather.

Note, if your eyes are that good, the shadows of the small trees in the foreground. They indicate that the azimuth, or compass orientation, of the roof is exactly or nearly south-facing, and that no nearby features like trees or other building threaten to shade the panels any time during the solar day (popularly reckoned to be between 9 AM and 3 PM).

No nearby power lines appear in the photo, so it’s hard to be sure whether the panels feed directly out into the local utility wiring (or grid), or to a battery bank designed to power the house after sundown, or a combination of the two functions (bi-modal, it’s called). 

A tiled roof in the background, along with mountains, suggests either a western US or possibly European location, places where solar panels are considered more progressive than kooky, and where local governments subsidize and encourage responsible photovoltaic installations. The local power supplier, or utility, may be purchasing the panels’ output at its own retail rate (net metering is the industry term), or it may be paying a “feed-in tariff” of up to twice the retail value of the power, a practice widely used in Europe and Canada to encourage the installation of solar electric arrays.

The residents of this house (subtle signs indicate this may be a barn) may spend some time each day accommodating their routines to the flow of solar power. They might operate their heaviest electrical loads, i.e. water pumps, refrigerators, dishwashers, clothes dryers, water heaters etc. while solar output highest, using their own power rather than purchases kilowatt-hours. They might adjust their lifestyles subtly to decrease power usage in the evening, using only lights and small loads while only battery current or expensive utility power are available.

Or, if the system has no “backup,” they may go about their business with no thought of loads, since the grid power simply flows into the house at night the same way the solar power flowed out through the meter all day. The local availability of sunlight, or “insolation,” may be as little as 2 kilowatt hours per day per square meter, or as high as six kilowatt hours per day per square meter, depending upon latitiude, climate, compass orientation and shading. The panels themselves may be as little as 12% efficient in transforming uv radiation into electric power, or they may be as much as 20% efficient, according to the quality and cost of the equipment when purchased. The panels, by their appearance, are not homemade, or if they are, they are meticulously framed and sealed. The wiring that connects them to each other is high-grade silicone with a sunlight-resistant coating, and the “inverter,”  thedevice that transforms the panels’ DC output into AC power usable by house loads, also synchronizes that AC output to the grid power for resale.

This primer, with links, is meant to bring your thinking into the picture with solar PV and the role it may/will play in your life in the future. Next time you’re driving past a house with panels on its roof, picture yourself living in it. Solar power on the roof doesn’t mean less fun for people living under those panels; to the contrary, there’s something natural and comforting about being linked to this life-giving power source in a positive and profitable way. But you humans, if you go out there, use sunscreen.

Update at Our House– Solar Hot Water

 This brief post will keep us close to home. I noted our new solar hot water system a few weeks ago, stressing our modest expectations for winter performance. I have to say I’m pleasantly surprised.

Today, December 6, the temperature in our town topped out in the 30s, we got three inches (up on this high hill, we get more) of wet, icy snow last night, and the winds were gusting to 15 miles or so as the day wore on. I checked the panel temp this morning after hearing the snow and ice avalanche off the collectors at 9 AM or so. 100 degrees on the return fluid thermometer.

Cutting to the jelly, I just ran hot water at 105 from my kitchen tap. One day of performance, 80 gallons of shower-ready water. Two 4×7 Stiebel Eltron flat plate panels (evacuated tubes are nice, but not necessary) two 40 gallon stainless holding tanks with heat exchanger coils for the solar fluid. One Caleffi (pricey, but very flexible) solar differential pump control. Very short connecting pipe (under ten feet total) between the panels and the tanks, located on my roof and in my attic, respectively.

As we near the solstice, and as temperatures drop into the teens and oughts, performance will certainly drop. But it won’t drop to zero. We’ll get pre-warmed water for the boiler to finish off on every sunny day from now until March equinox. I hope, after that, we’ll be getting near total solar hot water for some months.

So— a few thousand dollars (I, a seasoned solar contractor, did the installation myself) in equipment, a prime roof spot oriented within 15 degrees of south, a relatively un-obstructed morning horizon (the afternoon sun is hampered by some tall trees), a solar day extending from 9 AM to about 3 PM, and this is what we’re getting for an energy harvest. DEP figures concerning hot water as a proportion of total household energy are being revised upward, to a possible 25%. If that’s so, and I believe it in our case, I’ll look for a 25% drop in our fuel oil usage this winter. And, at nearly 60, I expect to bequeath this system to a future owner someday, still running, still harvesting that blessed free energy from God’s own fusion bomb, the sun.

Partial Sun no Problem for Solar Panels

I happened to be cleaning a boiler this morning at the home of one of my solar clients, and i checked the system over.  50 degrees out, cloudy enough so that I couldn’t tellwhere the sun was in the sky. The two Heliodyne panels were reading 95 degrees, the pump was cranking away, and the two 60 gallon storage tanks were being warmed. All in weather not normally seen as optimal for solar hot water systems. The oil fired boiler in this system only has to raise the water temperature to 130 degrees to serve the dishwasher, laundry and showers. Lots of energy was being saved by the solar equipment in that house.

I didn’t build the panels, or the heat exchanger, but I did design and install the system. It performs beyond expectations. The new optically selective coatings being used on flat plate panels will collect photons and transform them into heat much more efficiently than flat black paint or a bare surface.

This is a short post, an update on some things we’ve discussed lately. Don’t believe the dismissive comments about solar hot water being a three or four month blessing. Solar hot water, thoughtfully installed, will perform for you on sunny days twelve months a year in New England. Connected as a pre-heating treatment with an energy source configured to finish the water off to usable temperatures, solar panels can be working for you all winter long, even on cloudy days.

Sunbathing, Once Removed – Solar Hot Water and You

The device at left is a self-contained solar hot water heater, featuring panels, mounting frame, and tank at the top. it requires no power for pumps or controls. Water from the tank circulates through the collector plates by convection as the sun heats it, filling the tank with water at whatever temperature the sun can warm it. The tank remains at house pressure, waiting for a demand. At night the tank cools slowly, delivering hot water until the tank is cooled completely.

You can’t take a shower at midnight with this rig, unless no one else has used water that evening. You can’t store more water than can be held in the tank. You can’t rely upon the supply first thing in the morning, or later in the morning, unless the outside temp is so high that the tank doesn’t cool much. You can’t install this system in a climate where winter temps drop to freezing or below; or, you can’t use the system more than five months a year in New England where I live, and it must be drained for the winter when hot water is supplied by another system.  You can’t supply the hot water needs of an American family of  four unless they’re all atuned to the daily cycles of water heating and time their use of hot water in zen-like harmonious balance with the (i’m singing now, in a sloppy baritone) “Cirrrrrcle of Liiiiiiffffe.” No audio available on that one….

You get the picture? The system shown is not acceptable for Americans. No system I know of is acceptable to Americans, with the exception of aging hippies with dearly held beliefs on the subject. I installed a system several years ago for clients with those dearly held beliefs about energy and independence, but the system nevertheless had to be carefully integrated with a seamless backup, sized to provide hot water for every possible demand including house guests, and separated from the house water supply by a closed-loop heat exchanger filled with antifreeze to prevent freezing. Sporting those features, it cost a small bundle, which federal and state incentives defrayed by over half  (here in CT, at the time, state rebates were generous; since then, with a huge budget deficit, those rebates have withered). But it supplies “tempered” (pre-heated)  water to their oil-fired backup system on any sunny day in any month of the year, and supplies all of their hot water needs for about six months out of twelve.

That’s what Americans require: seamless integration of alternative energy systems into an American lifestyle which forfeits no convenience to the idea of sustainable energy technology. I could sell a lot of the systems shown in the picture; they would supply the hot water needs of a couple for at least the three warmest months of the NewEngland year, saving 25% of the energy costs in a category (domestic hot water) that accounts for at least 30% of an American family’s energy bill. Yes; that’s 8% of the household’s energy costs, defrayed by a system that must be lived with a state of awareness and harmony. No, I won’t sing again. The payback period of the system would be about eight years, and it has a life cycle of perhaps 30 years. But all the caveats listed above still apply. You have to live with what the system can do, and what it can’t do. How many of my clients are willing to make those lifestyle adjustments? Hands up? I don’t see any hands. Guess what? My hand’s not up, and I’m an energy-conscious aging hippie and heating/cooling contractor committed to renewables. I’m an American, and I want my hot water without compromise.

There are other solar hot water systems, other designs that contribute to a home’s hot water needs in a more American way. This USDE site gives an overview. Costs range from 8 to 25 thousand dollars US to install, and they pay back your investment over periods ranging from ten to 25 years. Do you know how fast they’re selling in Connecticut? Not fast at all, especially as the rebates recede and the federal tax incentives age toward 2015, when they will either be renewed or not.

I always plump for low technology, low cost, modest gain energy strategies in this blog and in my business, but I haven’t found a way to put solar hot water within the reach of  average homeowners yet. The renewables train is coming slowly around the bend, and there’s a lot of hemming and hawing among homeowners who’d rather replace windows and siding than invest in solar technology, because that’s what’s being hawked on the telly. I’m a very modest salesman, with a conscience I wear upon my sleeve, and I can’t promise more than the numbers tell me when I talk up renewables. The number are still tough, but they work in the long haul. We need a national, cultural sea change, a tipping point. If it’s not on the infomercials, it’s not hot. Al Gore can’t sell this one: I can’t sell this one. The renewables movement is waiting for someone to sell it to America; perhaps only Tom Hanks is up to the job.

The Inalienable Right– Hot Water

Whether by means of a furnace coil, electric tank, gas fired tank, tankless (see last post) heater, or other device, every American home is expected to supply enough hot water to: bathe every member of the household at least once a day to his/her satisfaction, run two loads of laundry through an automatic washer, operate the dishwasher at least one cycle, and supply hot water at each tap for the washing of hands/dishes/faces/toothbrushes.

Hot water needs run from 15 to 30 gallons per day per person, accounting for about 30% of a household’s energy consumption. Other major energy factors include heat, appliances and lighting. Few other developed countries require as much hot water per person as we do. Daily hot water usage in the UK is app. 11 gallons. The only country that uses more hot water, indeed more energy, per capita is the United Arab Emirates.

Energy is also still deceptively cheap in the USA. Most Europeans pay two to three times our cost for transportation and home convenience fuel. And we, resistant to new technologies like solar hot water, point-of-use hot water heaters, and heat-recovery of waste water, are using rather primitive equipment to heat up our precious showers.

But federal and state tax credits, depending upon where you live, can defray more than half the cost of new, more efficient equipment. The missing factor is our motivation to move forward technologically, embrace conservation until it becomes chic, and face up to the realpolitik of energy. It’s never been more cost-effective and patriotic to pursue alternative and renewable energy sources and equipment, but you do have to take the long view. The last solar hot water system I installed is calculated to pay the owners back in 10-12 years. Not many Americans are willing to wait that long to begin saving money on energy. Indeed, most of us don’t expect to be living in our present homes in ten years.

A feature of your home life that consumes 30% of your total energy budget deserves a second and then a third look. We’ll chew on this some more when next we meet. Until then, time your showers…….

It’s a Tankless Job

If I could give up the cruddy puns, I’d have more readers. As it is, the two of you are most welcome, and I salute your tolerant natures. The contraption shown at left is called a “tankless water heater.” This one is fired by propane, although we could show you electric or oil-fired models, and even a few that use wood. The idea is simple, but simple ideas are always hell for engineers. Water enters cold, leaves hot enough for American bath and kitchen use, and not much energy goes up the flue, if you believe the labels.

Compared to the electric tank that sits in my basement, the tankless heater is a marvel of efficiency. A crafty heat exchanger exposes the water to the gas flames/electric elements such that heat transfers at efficiency ratios up to 95%. My electric tank operates at closer to 85% due to various factors, mostly standby (idle) heat loss from the tank. 

The tankless heater sits cold, or barely warm, until you turn on the shower/faucet/dishwasher/laundry/jacuzzi. A flow switch alerts the unit that water is demanded, and the btus begin to flow immediately. A delay attends the operation of the heater, during which you run water, wasting a bit, and wait for the hot stuff. Usually fifteen to thirty seconds is enough. Then, as long as you continue to demand hot water continuously, the heater can produce as much as you can use, within limits.

Properly sized, the tankless heater will serve one point of use or several in your house. You calculate the capacity by the number of occupants and their habits. Teenagers count as a small village each. Old men like me are no big problem. Can I run the dishwasher while showering? Shall I operate the clothes washer and the dishwasher at the same time? There are easy formulas to help you get this right in one go.

The capacity for heating water in one pass is a thing that separates the tigers from the kittens. Electric tankless units are generally of smaller capacity, and two or more are installed in series to raise water to the desired temperature as it traverses the multiple heat exchangers. Propane or natural gas heaters are more aggressive, and usually one correctly sized heater will serve an average house. Only Republicans, to date, have been willing to accept the risks of the nuclear option, but they say the water is always hot. And wood burners can easily adjust the intensity of their heating plants by adding more logs/pellets/kindling to keep the heat exchanger cooking. The Waltons’ method, of course, was technically tankless, involving multiple pots hung over the fireplace and carried to the big washtub where a dirty Walton waited to be scalded clean.

We spent the last week at a “resort” (weathered 80 year old shacks perched on the dunes) on Cape Cod. The single modern convenience, besides a rather sluggish flush toilet (more on that topic only by request) is copious hot water supplied by propane-fired tankless heaters. Crank the shower control, wait a good half-minute, temper a bit with cold, and step in for the best shower you can get at any price. Yes, the shower’s  indoors; and it’s also outdoors— your choice. The blunt simplicity of the amenities is only meant to enhance your appreciation of the stunning views of sea, sand, birds, seals, whales (!), and well-fed tourists only capturable through wide-angle lenses. No, I won’t tell you where it is: they don’t advertise, and the waiting list stretches years in front of hopeful vacationers. Elitism has many faces.

At your house, the water heater can cost from $1 US to $3 US, depending upon the energy source and the equipment. If you’ve got a solar hot water system, you might be getting off VERY cheaply during these sunny warm days of summer. Pennies per day, just enough to run your pumps and sensors. Good for you. Next time we’ll revisit hot water and talk a bit about the more conventional optons.

Smell That Fresh Air! Where Do YOU Live?

I put good filters into the HVAC equipment I install. Sometimes, on request, I install special electronic or ultraviolet purifiers that remove living thingies from the air inside your house. But that’s only inside. We can battle the pet dander, dust mites, pollen and even germs floating in your indoor air. But we can’t fight what ’s going on outside.

The air quality where you live depends upon many things: surrounding plant life, animals living nearby, cities and manufacturing plants upwind of you, and nuclear testing in China, believe it or not. If you live just outside, say, Gary, Indiana, or on the east side of the Bronx, or in LA during smog season, you have to live with what man does to the environment in the course of American living: automobile exhaust, industrial emissions and the smoke from too many chimneys affect us when we breathe.

But I live in the country! Miles and miles of luxurious forest, hayfields, amber waves of grain, native casinos (non-emitters, they swear, very harmonious wit’ nature), placid cattle grazing in fields fenced by rubble-stone walls. I love New England. But the air quality where I live is not free of challenge. Ragweed, milkweed, conifer pollen, asters, wild grasses, oak and the cows’  behinds all emit stuff that I’m allergic to. On sultry August days I have to come inside sometimes to catch a breath of clean air. My house is not a clean-room, but it has a filtered air conditioning system that stands between me and the bad stuff outdoors sometimes when things build up and the Air Quality Index shows a high level of pollutants in the air.

If you’re not susceptible to these changes in air quality, good for you. But most people are, to varying degrees. Even stalwart smokers notice when the air gets heavy with dust, pollen and smoke particles, and breathing can be actually risky for more sensitive types like asthma sufferers.

What to do?  I’m afraid the solution, like so much of life, involves work. To start with, clean your house. Really clean. Use a good vacuum, preferably a hypo-allergenic model, or even a HEPA quality vac, move the piles in the corners, move the couch, move the dog, and vacuum everywhere. Do the walls, too. I’ll wait while you finish.

And vacuum your bare mattress to reduce the number of dust mites living there. What are they living on, you ask? Read the Wiki thing in the link. Or don’t.  Dust mites are icky. Just vacuum your mattress, under your bed, run your bedding through the dryer at high temp once in a while, or, better yet, hang it out on a hot sunny day. Dust mites are like vampires. Sort of.

And once y0ur house is clean, keep it clean. Fry your favorite greasy foods out on the grille rather than indoors. Use a non-ozone air purifier to filter one safe space in your house for you to lurk in on bad air days. Watch the weather thingie for air reports; they’re there, but barely. Don’t look for them in the shots of the weather lady’s legs.

And consider, charming as they may be, that your pets may be part of the problem. Especially if they share your furniture or your beds when you’re not looking. And they do, don’t they? Don’t lie. Of course you love your pets; but they might be as big a factor in your allergies as the ragweed pollen that’s out and bothering everyone now.

Respiratory health is not something you can take in pill form. What goes into your lungs can cause you trouble. Sometimes it comes from upwind, from the factory or the city. Sometimes it comes from the scenic fields and woods around your house. Sometimes it comes from the mattress under your sheets. Or from your dog. And if it’s coming from inside your house, there’s something you can do about it. Those fields may be best viewed through your windows until pollen season is over. Health is an energy issue, as we will see in future posts.

What’s That Smell? Quick! To the Shower!

One of the seasonal energy features of summer is: more showers. Not so, say you? Take as many showers in cold weather as you do in summer? Well, let me tell you about my daughters. In their salad days as teenagers they took several a day between them. I, as a hard-w0rking contractor, often find myself in the rain-room more than once a day.

And the electric tank in the basement that supplies my hot water is working overtime to supply all that hot water for extra showers. So add to my energy bill for modest air conditioning comfort the expense of extra hot water for more laundry and showers. And the alternative? EEEEEEEeeeeewwww! What’s that smell? See the guy in the photo? Don’t get any closer, or you’ll receive way too much information about that person. Wait until he’s all done and dried off.

What’s Mr. Natural’s astute, energy-conscious remedy? Well. First things first. Short, tepid showers. You’re thinking, you don’t know my kids. No, I don’t know your kids. But I know how to turn down the settings on my water heater. And you can learn, too. Right here. And be extra careful if your tank is electric; use an insulated screwdriver and don’t remove the wireshield. Just follow the directions, do the upper as well as the lower thermostat, and you can become as unloved as a beginning tuba player in minutes. And keep your teenagers away from screwdrivers. Come to think of it, I’ll bet they don’t know or care where your water heater is located.

Stronger deodorant? Doesn’t instill confidence or convey that fresh clean feeling. but you can try. Hippie housefold hint no. 206: apply rubbing alcohol to your pits as you emerge from the shower, then use deodorant if you wish. Don’t try this, ladies, after you shave under there. Be warned.

And there’s what Kinky Friedman calls the “Waylon Jennings Bus Shower,” in which you splash and swab your armpits while standing at the sink. Saves water, job gets done. No fresh, clean feeling, though. Now wipe up the floor.

Between the laundry, hot water and the air conditioning, it’s hard to save an energy buck in hot weather. But you can try. Adjust your hot water heater, adjust your air conditioning thermostat, do full loads of laundry in cold water and hang the clothes in the sun to dry. Don’t waste energy pleading with your teenagers. Tell them they smell just fine.

Taking It To the Street– Grid-Tie Solar Pros and Cons

  The image is courtesy of ABCsolar.com, a commercial vendor, and it explains at a glance the appeal of solar electricity as it is practiced in many states with tax credits and rebate programs. Panels on the roof feed the grid, slowing the spin of that electrical cash register and sometimes even spinning it backward, selling power back to the grid at regionally mandated rates, sometimes identical to retail.

We’ve weighed in on the topic before, but the discussion, globally and blogospherically (is that a word?), is heating up (intentional pun, not funny but vitally important). Why are the systems set up this way? Here are five points, in descending order of priority, to explain the issues.

One. The grid needs help. Our electrical infrastructure is aging and stretched, and panels on America’s rooftops spell R-E-L-I-E-F for the power stations and the distribution network during peak usage hours, which happen to coincide with peak solar production hours.

Two. The math is simple this way. Since home-generated solar electricity can be used by the grid, the simplest calculation is to use the meter in two directions, in and out, and let lower power bills be the immediate reward for an investment in renewable energy for homeowners. Different utilities reward solar power sold to the grid at different rates, and some are capped as to yearly total power contributed from a single system. My local utility, Connecticut Light and Power, uses the Net Metering System, in which the meter simply registers resold power at retail rates. Even I can do that math.

Three. Grid tied systems are less costly. At quoted rates a nominal 5000 watt grid tie system costs the homeowner about $18,000 with all rebates calculated, and some quoted prices are higher. Similar systems involving storage batteries and charging and regulating equipment would cost considerably more, and payback formulas would be even longer than they are now (12-20 years, depending on who’s doing the math). The benefit of being able to use stored power at night and in bad weather is dearly bought on those terms. And remember, when the grid goes down, the panels are cut off, even in sunny weather, for safety reasons.

Four. The good news is the bad news. Most of us have very reliable local utilities who keep us well supplied with power, reducing our need for backup systems except in unusual circumstances (storms, blackouts, local line failure). Other countries have much less reliable utilities, and rolling blackouts are a part of life even in other developed countries. The incentive for grid independence, except among those in remote locations and cantankerous old hippies with long memories, is not compelling .

Five. Living with backup systems is a pain. Most Americans worship at the Church of Convenience, so to speak, and planning power usage to coincide with daylight hours while reserving battery power for small loads at night is too much thinking. Battery systems capable of running central air and electric ranges would be huge and expensive, and Americans who spend their days out of the house aren’t able to easily plan activities like clothes drying, cooking and water heating.

So—-  for now, this is what’s possible. Solar power with storage backup is too expensive for modest budgets, too slow on payback to be an attractive short-term investment, and too short on equipment life cycle to be an attractive long-term investment. But the numbers do work: solar power pays, eventually, modestly, reliably, efficiently, philosophically, politically. For those able, in these straitened economic times, to take advantage of it, it affords a chance to  be in on the ground floor of something that all of us will eventually join. For now, you might need that home equity as a safety net for your family. There are so many other energy measures that are very much within our reach. Let’s do those first things first.