Proof of the effects of global warming.
The aliens got him a solar powered mini air conditioner, and he spends a lot of time in the cave with satellite TV.
For the honorable mention, it is a perfectly legitimate business. Basically, they install the panels and then charge for the electricity used for some number of years until you have paid off their costs and profits. Of course, they will want to put a lien on the property until the debt is paid, so you will have to pay them off to clear it. So long as you understand what is happening it is a legitimate business model.
I haven’t gotten one in a while but I used to get frequent calls, and the occasional email, about programs for installing solar panels, often including possible tax breaks or government assistance with costs. Unfortunately I own a duplex, and for some reason the companies that install solar panels will not even consider doing so on a duplex. Ive never gotten a satisfactory explanation for why. Both units have completely separate electrical system, so it’s not like it’s a multi-unit building. (Although in talking with the owner of the adjoining unit, she would be willing to split the installation and other costs if there was some way we could both be connected to the solar panels.) I don’t even think the fact that I’m in an HOA would affect the ability to install solar panels, although I haven’t checked with them to verify this since I can’t get anyone to install them anyway.
The only way that something plugged into your outlet will reduce your energy use by 40% or whatever is if it shorts out your electrical system and you, in your drug-induced haze, don’t notice that it’s no longer working.
Mitch Hedberg was right. We can’t get a clear picture of Bigfoot because he is naturally blurry.
Well according to the SyFy documentary series Invisible Man / I-Man, it’s even easier. They have a biological quicksilver gland that actively bends light around them!
Sorry, couldn’t resist, it’s one of my favorite silly SciFi series from back when the channel was new and creating fun original stuff, not Reality TV drek and trying for the ‘so bad it’s good’ level of stupidity.
Well, if you wired up a dimmer switch to you lamp’s plug, and dimmed it by 40%, then you’re reducing your energy use by 40%! (You’re also getting 40% less light)
Touché, my friend. Of course, the cost of flashlight batteries is going to eat your lunch.
Not really true since the efficiency of the light emission drops when you lower the current. So you might save 40% of the power and lose 60% of the light (number just made up).
Also not true because of the human eye’s response to light – it’s non-linear, so that we would perceive this as an even greater loss in light.
When the governments of the world spent tens of millions of dollars on a “Bomb detector” that didn’t work, and was nothing more than a super-fancy dowsing rod, it’s unlikely they’re going to be able to crack down on other, less-serious fraudulent products.
The brief moment my wife and I were in a position to buy a house in LA, we were in the paperwork phase when it came out that the solar panels on the house were on a forever loan to the company and the monthly payment was several hundred dollars a month…forever…and any new owner had to assume the payments. It was ridiculous and seemed like something impossible to enforce by law but the owners (the adult children of the deceased suckers who signed that ridiculous contract) insisted we abide by it. So we walked.
This differs from what I described in two ways. First that the payments were forever and second that they don’t depend on electricity usage. For the latter to make sense, they had to be in a jurisdiction that required the electric company to pay for power returned through the lines. Anyway, the forever payment would have been a deal breaker for me too.
When we were shopping for solar, we heard some dire warnings that solar panels could decrease the value of your home and make it hard to get a mortgage. I couldn’t see how that would be the case, but I’ll bet they were thinking of a plan like that one.
We ended up buying our solar outright, and we pay the electric utility a nominal fee for being connected to the grid, which essentially works as a giant backup battery. Since the system was installed, we’ve run net positive on our electric usage. The only thing that bothers me is that with this setup, when there’s a power outage, we don’t have power even though we have all that generating power on our roof.
I could see it. A lot of people aren’t familiar with home solar, and are perfectly happy using the grid. Shopping a house with holes in the roof to mount solar panels and lack of knowledge on how the system works, it will steer a lot of people away, which should cause a price drop. Conversely, someone familiar with solar might see this as a benefit, but only as long as everything else meets their needs. People who want solar can always add solar within a reasonable budget, but a kitchen renovation is going to cost them a whole lot of money.
I installed a ground source heat pump in my last house. The number of questions I had from potential buyers really informed me of how uninformed people are of things that aren’t the same 80% as everything else. In the end I got what I wanted, but I would have gotten that a lot faster with a normal gas burner.