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Bob Scheulen

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RE: World Population - 8 Billion Cannot be Ignored

Posted By Bob Scheulen 01-15-2023 10:17 AM
Found In Egroup: Everything Solar Forum \ view thread
There are a lot of economists who don't agree with the Milton Friedman school of thought. There are plenty of people who think the whole rational actor/selfish best interest thing is largely bunk--my take is that the whole Milton Friedman school of economists all failed psychology. The main challenge ...

RE: World Population - 8 Billion Cannot be Ignored

Posted By Bob Scheulen 01-12-2023 08:24 AM
Found In Egroup: Everything Solar Forum \ view thread
I'd argue that currency (money) isn't itself the problem, but rather the fact that once accumulated beyond a certain level, it gives those people power over everyone else with the usual result of a very unequal distribution of wealth. Still, I'm not convinced that unequal wealth stops us from reaching ...

RE: World Population - 8 Billion Cannot be Ignored

Posted By Bob Scheulen 12-29-2022 10:19 PM
Found In Egroup: Everything Solar Forum \ view thread
James, I am acutely aware of the issue. It's a bummer, but population got to be a political hot potato. If someone wants to label me however they want, I can't stop them, but the reality is that I have no social agenda. I don't even know how this idea of racism got attached to something that is just ...

RE: World Population - 8 Billion Cannot be Ignored

Posted By Bob Scheulen 12-28-2022 08:18 AM
Found In Egroup: Everything Solar Forum \ view thread
John, I don't think I get what you're saying. I understand that humans have a desire to reproduce, but most people i know are plenty happy with two or fewer children and I know plenty of people with none. Anyhow, even if humans did want to grow the population endlessly, it doesn't mean they should do ...

RE: World Population - 8 Billion Cannot be Ignored

Posted By Bob Scheulen 12-26-2022 07:03 PM
Found In Egroup: Everything Solar Forum \ view thread
I agree it's the main issue. Alas it became a political hot potato, so we hardly ever hear about. ------------------------------ Bob Scheulen ------------------------------

RE: Rhythms of Passive Solar Living

Posted By Bob Scheulen 12-22-2022 08:18 AM
Found In Egroup: Everything Solar Forum \ view thread
Thanks for the perspective. I was an engineering student in 73--I remember waiting on line for gas. I remember buying a couple of passive solar books back then (I see we all have that gas crisis in common). It all seemed to make so much sense back then -- plus PV back then was crazy expensive. It was ...

RE: Rhythms of Passive Solar Living

Posted By Bob Scheulen 12-21-2022 09:13 PM
Found In Egroup: Everything Solar Forum \ view thread
I think passive need to be emphasized. I sometimes wonder how much energy we could save just by orienting buildings correctly and putting in reasonable windows (ie sun tempering). Given how most housing developments look like blobs scattered randomly over the landscape, I suspect the saving is quite ...

RE: Rhythms of Passive Solar Living

Posted By Bob Scheulen 12-18-2022 06:50 PM
Found In Egroup: Everything Solar Forum \ view thread
Although I personally love living in a passive solar house, my thought is that some degree of sun tempering combined with a heat pump is probably the easier sell for most people. I'd be ecstatic to see houses even get 50% of their heating passively, versus the standard nearly zero from passive. I don't ...

RE: Rhythms of Passive Solar Living

Posted By Bob Scheulen 12-17-2022 07:13 AM
Found In Egroup: Everything Solar Forum \ view thread
I have PV and battery backup...enough to be net zero most of the time. Some day I'll build another shed and put on a couple more panels and then I'll be net zero in the winter also. The house is all electric, and the only heat backup is the wood stove. I get away with that because I'm in a rural location ...

RE: Rhythms of Passive Solar Living

Posted By Bob Scheulen 12-16-2022 05:15 PM
Found In Egroup: Everything Solar Forum \ view thread
I've had the same experience this year, although here in Coastal California, periods of cloudiness are not completely uncommon, it's just that this one was colder than most. With weak sun, we were only getting up to 64 or 65F at the end of the day and then dropping to 61 in the morning. A few days we ...

RE: Rhythms of Passive Solar Living

Posted By Bob Scheulen 11-28-2022 09:25 PM
Found In Egroup: Everything Solar Forum \ view thread
I've had a similar experience in Coastal CA--although it's a much milder climate. in the cooler months, the low temp is almost never less than 66 and the high is rarely above 74. Current night temps are high 30s to low 40s, daytime high is high 50s to high 60s. I'm in just a t-shirt now (8pm), but will ...

RE: Sunpower service

Posted By Bob Scheulen 10-18-2022 12:25 PM
Found In Egroup: Everything Solar Forum \ view thread
I once had a small array with one of those enphase envoy things that allowed me to walk in the shed and read what was going on. It supposedly had internet ability, but I never turned it on--I just read the display every so often. As you say, I also can walk. When all the inverters all fried (apparently ...

RE: Ambient House: Heating and cooling with 100% ambient energy

Posted By Bob Scheulen 04-09-2022 07:12 AM
Found In Egroup: Everything Solar Forum \ view thread
You're probably right... although there must be more to it, since there are people who do it purely for financial reason--as we all know, there are places where PV is the least cost power, and it hard for me to imagine that passive techniques aren't the lowest cost everywhere.. beyond code anyhow, although ...

RE: Ambient House: Heating and cooling with 100% ambient energy

Posted By Bob Scheulen 04-08-2022 10:18 AM
Found In Egroup: Everything Solar Forum \ view thread
I totally agree with KISS. As far as I can tell, the two main issues that stop people from using passive solar are attachment to a particular architectural style and a broad resistance to change--the latter probably being the bigger factor, but I'm not really sure. Obviously those who find value in reducing ...

RE: Ambient House: Heating and cooling with 100% ambient energy

Posted By Bob Scheulen 04-03-2022 08:42 AM
Found In Egroup: Everything Solar Forum \ view thread
In the northwest, there are fans of both the PH model and the PH derived "pretty good house". From what I've heard the challenge of PH certification is meeting the .6ACH50 air leakage requirement. Also, although the PH software accounts for solar gain, I don't think it models mass and so doesn't tend ...

RE: Ambient House: Heating and cooling with 100% ambient energy

Posted By Bob Scheulen 03-31-2022 08:10 PM
Found In Egroup: Everything Solar Forum \ view thread
The fact that the sun/wind has an effect on a building no matter what seems grossly under appreciated. You'd think that designers would at least not do anything that is detrimental to a building's energy performance, but they seem to do it far too often. To further complicate matters most urban building ...

RE: Costs Not Widely Discussed

Posted By Bob Scheulen 02-21-2021 06:02 PM
Found In Egroup: Everything Solar Forum \ view thread
I'm fine, I just am frustrated at the state of the world. Seattle has a lot of good things...the city buys wind power to supplement its hydro, and promoted PV -- at least for a while. We have a high recycling rate and a sizable green building community and quite a number of farmers markets as well ...

RE: Costs Not Widely Discussed

Posted By Bob Scheulen 02-20-2021 06:17 PM
Found In Egroup: Everything Solar Forum \ view thread
Sounds like we're fairly like minded. Alas, I admit I take my car on long trips sometimes, so I'm driving a Subaru Impreza. I try to compensate by walking or biking when I'm at home. I live in Seattle, so most of what I need is very close. The problem you have with not being about to install PV on ...

RE: Costs Not Widely Discussed

Posted By Bob Scheulen 02-20-2021 07:42 AM
Found In Egroup: Everything Solar Forum \ view thread
I've found that although the cost for these improvements can be hefty, the bigger issue is how people feel about them. So far they've been sold as being better for the environment, or saving money over the long term, but the community of people who respond to that is apparently not large. I don't know ...

RE: Costs Not Widely Discussed

Posted By Bob Scheulen 02-19-2021 06:56 PM
Found In Egroup: Everything Solar Forum \ view thread
I agree that the financing aspect has to be dealt with also. Some banks offer energy efficient mortgages, but they don't seem to be widely advertised. I've also heard a lot of reluctance about air sealing from homeowners---it feels "unnatural" to them, but then having a lot of very cold air leaking ...