In WISE we read the poem "TWO TRAMPS IN THE MUD" and were asked to make connections to our project.

A line that I connected with in this poem is "But if you so much as dare to speak, A cloud comes over the sunlight arch, A wind/ comes off a frozen peak, And you're two months back in the middle of March."
It seems like in this project every time I take one step forward there is always an obstacle that sets me back two steps. For example, I just found out that due to the design of my mudroom and the window panels I bought, the air collector box will not be as efficient as it could be. Some of the air will not flow into the mudroom, and will end up in a pocket in the corner. So that's stressful.

Also at the end of the poem I connected with the line "...As that I had no right to play With what was another man's work for gain."
What I am doing now for my project is purely avocational, whereas other people have to do this for a living. I don't think that they would hate me for it. In fact the person who is working with me, Bill Goodhew, does this for a living, and I'm pretty sure (hopefully) that he enjoys working with me.

I met with Mr. Koplinka-Loehr yesterday. We visited his house which is completely off the grid. It was the coolest. The house was built by Cornell college students for the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon. The houses entered must be cost-effective, energy efficient, and attractive. In my opinion the house wasn't that attractive from the outside, but on the inside it was the coziest house I'd ever seen. It wasn't a small house, but everything had been built to not waste space and therefore, to not waste energy.  It was very compact on the inside, but still left plenty of room to navigate throughout the house. For example, the refrigerator was build into drawers. that meant that when you opened the drawer (refrigerator) the cold air would not fall to the ground and be wasted. It would stay in the drawer and therefore, save energy. Refrigerator's are also very energy intensive. Another cool thing was their stoves were heated up by magnets revolving. It would take like ten seconds to heat them up, and after like two second they had already cooled down, wasting no heat and no energy.

It had 72 solar panels which were connected  to72 batteries. The electricity from these was then sent to a converter which would convert the direct current from the solar panels, to alternating current which is used by the majority of household appliances. The difference between direct current and alternating current is that direct current can only go in one direction, and it losing energy over time. Alternating current doesn't lose energy over long distances and can go in either direction.

Something I learned that I could do to retain the  heat brought into my mudroom would be to put a piece of soap stone in the room. During the day it will absorb heat from the hot air, and at night it will release the hot air and keep the room warm. Even though my solar panel is a passive air collector box. This visit was still very helpful, and really cool. I would have wanted to do it even if I wasn't doing this project.

Might be meeting with some solar energy experts very soon! Their names are Michael-Koplinka-Loerh, and Kendall Carpenter.

I have lots of questions and am looking forward to it.

Here are the estimated costs of the things I am buying...

Framing: 2X4X16 (2X) $7.00 each

OSB: (7/16)  (2X)         $9.00 each

Screening: 3' X 27' +  36"X84"   $21.00+$7.00

Screws: 1 lb 1.5 + 1lb 2             $10.00+$10.00

Metal for Cap +Back of box: ~$50.00

Nails:                    $5.00

Dark Green (metalized) paint  $10.00      
Total                                  ~$150.00

Another cost is time.
Once all these materials are in my yard I should be able to build the solar panel in one long day of hard work!!
  

Went to Home Depot today to browse their selection of ply wood, screening, screws, and (metalized) Dark green paint dark green paint with Bill. I also got a free bag of popcorn woot woot! We pretty much found everything we needed at home depot, but I might go to Cayuga Lumber. They are closer to my home, and I like to support local businesses. I think that they will have most of what I need . Soon I'll start making purchases and collecting all my materials on site (aka my home).

I went up to Eco Village the other day to take pictures of their solar panels. They have a very large array, and I hope to talk to the solar panel caretaker up there. I think his name his Jeff Gilmore. Anyway, here is what they look like. It was snowing when I took these so their quality may be sub-standard.

My solar panel will not be as big as these...

Today I met with my mentor. I told her how I was feeling that I may be slacking a little bit, and she was very supportive. She gave me some websites to look at, and encouraged me to contact one of her friends Tommy Beers. He builds and installs solar panels, plus lives nearby my house.

I have just set up a tentative meeting this Sunday with a carpenter/man, Bill Goodhew, who will help me go shopping for wood that will be used for the framing of the solar panel.

After reading Claire Doran's journal, I felt like I have been slacking a little bit. She did a journal entry approximately 3 or 4 times a week. Even though, they were short, she always found the time to work on her project every single day. Her project was building a corset. Even though, after reading her journal I still have no idea how she built her corset, I did learn I have a lot more work to do in this project and I can't start slacking now. I am inspired by Claire's journal to work hard and to really put the hours into my project.

SOOO THANK YOU CLAIRE!

Here is all the research I have so far.
The books I got are helpful, but the information about solar power is spread out and hard to find at times. I will edit this post more and more as I get more and more research.

SOLAR ENERGY

• The sun has 350,000,000 terawatts of power available.
• 15 minutes of exposure to a full sun would be enough to generate the world’s energy requirement.
• 10,800,000 terawatts available from fossil fuels
• Each home is accountable for 22,000 pounds of CO2 emissions yearly
• Basically when the panels are exposed to sunlight, the electrons are separated from the atoms. This movement of the electrons creates the electricity.
• The problem with fossil fuels is the rising prices, increasing demands, declining reserves, and unpredictable supply from external sources.

Solar Energy: The Awakening Science

• In 1974 only 6% of the American public regarded energy as one of the country’s biggest problems. That is the same year Nixon retired.
• A trouble with sunshine as a source of power is that it is spread all over, and it is hard to concentrate. Therefore energy is being lost.

Applied Solar Energy: An Introduction

• After World War 2 George Keck built the popular image of the solar home. He discovered it while building a house of all glass windows. Even though it was frigid outside and there was no artificial heating the working were talking off their shirts and were sweating terribly.
• The Solar Energy Research Institute was born from the chaotic rush into alternative energy in 1973 after the OPEC oil embargo.
• Solar Energy has had trouble becoming very popular because of four reasons. SERI was never given the level of support that it needed to pursue its wide-ranging vision. Its budget was half what the national Academy of Sciences recommended. It had enormous ground to make up in comparison to other energy sources.
• The organization of the institute was a mess. No one knew what the purpose of their regional center. No one knew which center was in charge.  
• SERI was supposed to research solar heating and cooling of buildings, agricultural and industrial process heat applications, solar thermal electric generation, photovoltaic technology, wind energy conversion, bioconversion, ocean thermal energy conversion, and low-head hydroelectric power. The research of each was completely different. Therefore SERI never had a definite direction.
• The head of SERi was incompetent. He viewed his job as a fun adventure in the Wild West as opposed to a challenge of a lifetime.
• Once Denis Hayes became head of SERI, and the 1979 energy shock started pushing the political agenda, SEIR morale returned.
• In just four years the cost of photovoltaics dropped by a factor of three as money poured into the field and production.
• When Reagan took office he promoted decentralized energy sources. This was not good for solar energy because no private corporation was willing to invest in it. Solar research and production needed government aid.