Friday, March 17, 2006
J'ai retourné
It's been a rough week for cycling. The cold has been harsh with such a strong wind. Unfortunately, today was the first day I got on my bike. It felt good to be moving again.
The roads are clear, so I've switched to my road bike now. My winter bike is put away. I really hope I don't need to pull it out any time soon.
This site was up and down for the past few days. This may have been a good thing because it stopped me from posting a long boring rant about how annoyed I was from spending so much time in my car. Thank-you blogger.
Here's some good news on the solar panel front. 20 years is a long time to pay off such an investment, especially when so much can change over that time period. Still, the province is pitching in a lot of money to help individual homeowners make this happen, so it could be very effective. The other thing they really need to do is stop subsidizing the price of power, so people are actually paying for what they use and are encouraged to conserve. Then give a targetted subsidy to those who need it.
Spring is here! Really ... very close ... I can feel it.
The roads are clear, so I've switched to my road bike now. My winter bike is put away. I really hope I don't need to pull it out any time soon.
This site was up and down for the past few days. This may have been a good thing because it stopped me from posting a long boring rant about how annoyed I was from spending so much time in my car. Thank-you blogger.
Here's some good news on the solar panel front. 20 years is a long time to pay off such an investment, especially when so much can change over that time period. Still, the province is pitching in a lot of money to help individual homeowners make this happen, so it could be very effective. The other thing they really need to do is stop subsidizing the price of power, so people are actually paying for what they use and are encouraged to conserve. Then give a targetted subsidy to those who need it.
Spring is here! Really ... very close ... I can feel it.
Darren J 3/17/2006 02:57:00 p.m.
11 Comments:
Cool, 42 cents that is pretty good. But how does this forced connection to the grid work? I want to know if there's not enough juice city wide and I have solar panels, my house gets to use all available solar energy from my house before any is sold to the grid. There's also a group called RISE (riverdale initiative for solar energy) looking at doing a large group purchase of panels. Lots of ways to solve our supply problem, but building a mega natural gas plant on the portlands (which McGuinty govt has approved) is not the best one for our air.
I got the impression that it wasn't quite forced, but it was assumed you would connect to the grid so you can receive your 42 cents since that would be the only way you would get a subsidy. And it would be in your interest on a daily basis to receive the power off the grid at 5.5 cents. So if I'm right, it's sort of voluntary, and if you wanted to, you could hit some switch and receive power from your solar cells.
I like the sound of this RISE. Solar panels are probably currently outside of the budget of most people, unless it gets aded to their mortgage. The collaborative/community purchase of alternate power systems is the way of the future, I hope. Either that, or we'll have huge nuclear power stations everywhere!
I just noticed the Star has a poll on their front page:
Today's poll
Would incentives offered by Ontario induce you to install home solar panels?
Current results are at 67% Yes!
I like the sound of this RISE. Solar panels are probably currently outside of the budget of most people, unless it gets aded to their mortgage. The collaborative/community purchase of alternate power systems is the way of the future, I hope. Either that, or we'll have huge nuclear power stations everywhere!
I just noticed the Star has a poll on their front page:
Today's poll
Would incentives offered by Ontario induce you to install home solar panels?
Current results are at 67% Yes!
Brutal winds lol they really are but I LOVE the tail wind I get driving my bike home at night after work :D P.S. Do you ride single speed too?
Financially I guess it makes sense to sell all to grid. In the interest of self-sustainability it would be nice to have it so that batteries become fully charged first (for internal house use) and if the batteries are fully charged direct power to the grid. But I don't know how the setup works if thats possible.
On the self-sustainability side, I'd say you can still be satisfied that you are not dependent, as long as you keep track of how much energy you use and that it is less than you provide. It's just that the government would be paying you 36.5 cents (42-5.5) for every kWh you use. A little thank you from everyone else.
My bike has 12 gears and I make good use of them every day. With my ride through Hogg's Hollow near Yonge and York Mills, I think I would end up falling over sideways if I tried to use a single gear.
Do you ride a fixie, Steeker? I've never tried it, but I'll have to some time. Actually, I don't get what the good thing about them is, but I won't knock it until I try it.
Do you ride a fixie, Steeker? I've never tried it, but I'll have to some time. Actually, I don't get what the good thing about them is, but I won't knock it until I try it.
I am hooked on it what a wild feeling on a single speed :) you should try it out
it's 'je suis retourne', which means turned around.
to return is 'revenu'
as je suis revenu
or better yet, 'je suis de retour'
but it's good to see people try a bit of French, at least, better than nothing!
- Billy McCormick.
to return is 'revenu'
as je suis revenu
or better yet, 'je suis de retour'
but it's good to see people try a bit of French, at least, better than nothing!
- Billy McCormick.
Hey, thanks Billy!
Good thing you can't hear my accent.