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Going solar
comments (0) July 7th, 2008 in Blogs
Kevin Ireton, editor-at-large
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As the price of oil rises, you don’t hear as many complaints about the high cost of solar power, but you still hear them: “Solar is too expensive. It doesn’t make sense. The payback period is too long.”
Turns out it’s all bunk. My wife and I finally took the plunge last weekend. We went solar, and it cost us only $81. Well, $90, if you count the two bags of concrete. We bought a Freshaire FD-40 Dryer from the Jack-Post Corporation. It boasts a four-load capacity, with 34 drying lines and 190 ft. of drying area. I don’t know what the payback period will be, but I do know that nothing spins the electric meter like our clothes dryer. (I suppose the 220v, 30-amp circuit was a clue.)
A few years ago, I would have considered this clothesline an eyesore. The thing looks like a TV antenna that blew off the roof and lodged itself in the ground. I briefly tried to talk Cynthia out of buying it.
“Let me build something. I can get some pressure-treated 4x4s and 6x6s. A couple of uprights, with crossbars and angle braces. I’ll use mortise-and-tenon joinery. It’ll look like an arbor.”
“Oh, no.” She said, using that tone. “Not another project.” When something escalates to the status of project in her mind, there’s no hope. To become a project is to become complicated in a way that only readers (and editors) of Fine Homebuilding are capable of complicating a thing. To become a project also means to join a long list of other projects that have been talked about for so long that they’ve lost any connection to reality. When Cynthia hears me say “After we renovate the barn…” or “After we build the garage…,” she discounts the possibility of these things actually happening the same way she would if I said “After we win the lottery…”
It’s not that Cynthia doesn’t believe in me, or that she doesn’t appreciate the things I build, but she’s a realist. She knows how long things take. So we bought a clothesline that looks like a TV antenna, and you know what? I think it’s beautiful.
posted in: Blogs
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How to Paint Fiber-Cement Siding
Painter Jim Lacey shares some tips for caulking and painting fiber-cement siding. read more
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About this blog
As the editor of Fine Homebuilding, I spend my weekdays trying to produce a magazine that will satisfy 300,000 of the most demanding builders, both professional and amateur. As the owner of a 200-year old Cape in Connecticut’s Litchfield Hills, I spend weekends working on my house.
Each activity invariably informs, and complicates, the other. In this blog, I’ll offer observations from both worlds -- publishing and building -- with the hope of providing some useful or at least entertaining insights.
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