Hooking Up the Sun

We are in the process of installing alternative energy devices. That's a fancy way of saying, we're putting in solar panels. There is a big bank of these going in across the way that will be selling power back to the grid, but right here on our garage we're putting in solar collectors that will heat the water used at the resort.

The installation continued yesterday on the solar tubes on the garage. After all, it's not enough to capture the sunlight, it needs to be put to productive work -- otherwise all you get is a sunburn! (which Blackstone Solar notes on their license plate!)

Now that both tiers of solar panels are installed, Carl and Dave were hard work connecting the various pipes and wires and valves and do-dads. The pump transfer station might make sense to Carl, but to me that was just a snarl of connections. Dave, connecting the water tanks, was on more familiar territory for me!

The sun is shining brightly, up here in North Muskoka, so we should soon be able to report on the progress of these panels once they are up and running. In the meantime, the process has been an interesting one, and we think the tubes look rather spiffy and a little science-fictiony on the garage roof.

As interesting and funky as they are, these tubes, for sheer size and Science Fiction, don't hold a foot-candle to the "Array" across the road, which is currently awaiting the panels to arrive and so still looks like something communicating with Alpha Centauri. Achmed hiked up with me last night to check it out, and see if there had been any successful communications with distant planets. He had nothing to report at this time, but remains optimistic...

Stay tuned.