Going Solar

The Going Solar blog will feature ideas and information relevant to installing and optimizing home solar energy systems, plus the occasional posts relevant to the climate change crisis and lack of political sanity. Our low cost panel racks have been replicated four times in our county, and at least a dozen times across the country and South America that I know of.  There are also some useful resources related to our Solar Open House.

This site is also used test WordPress plugins and functions I’ve been developing for my client’s websites, such as the iconic newslink management software that provide these news widgets and their associated searchable archives.

Sorry I haven’t gotten to more ‘how-to’ posts than the panel mounting rack yet, but I’ve been swamped with website work and building projects.  I’m working to extract myself from various website maintenance loops (by automating sites I manage with WordPress).

Upcoming ‘how-to’ posts will cover topics such as low cost ultra-low power DC lighting and using DC/DC power supplies to eliminate vampire transformers so your inverter can run in stand-by mode (every watt-hour is sacred, especially in an off-grid system).  Also how to modify a frost-free refrigerator to work with an inverter running in stand-by mode – without modification a frost-free refrigerator will experience severe mood swings.

Featured Posts

2 posts found

Gallery, Going Solar Don Alejandro February 5, 2013
Low cost adjustable solar panel rack
Mary and I live off grid, so we wanted to mount our panels near ground level, where we could easily keep the snow off (i.e., not on a two story tin roof) and adjust the panel angle seasonally, because every watt is sacred in a non-grid-tie system, especially December through February in WV. Also, the panels would be more efficient in warm weather (due to being cooler than if mounted on a hot tin roof). We didn't want to spend a lot of money on a pole-mount rack, so I came up with a simple design that we built from treated lumber, common hardware and hinges. More
Tagged: Panel mounting

Going Solar Mary Wildfire October 10, 2015
First Steps to Solar
Mary Wildfire’s presentation from the Solar Open House at Hickory Ridge. More
Tagged: Renewable energy, solar

Going Solar Blog

27 posts found, showing 10 per page

Going Solar Mary Wildfire May 15, 2020
False Solutions to Climate Change: Real Solutions
This has been a long tour through the Wonderland of fake solutions to climate change, ideas designed to splash a coat of green paint on Business As Usual so that certain private interests can keep getting richer…and so the rest of us need not be bothered with changing our habits or lifestyle. More
Issues: Climate Chaos, False solutions

Going Solar Mary Wildfire May 15, 2020
False Solutions to Climate Change: Geoengineering
Geoengineering refers to proposals for solving the problem of climate change, not by mitigation—that is,  reducing emissions and deforestation, the causes of global heating—but instead by the use of new technologies. More
Issues: Climate Chaos, False solutions

Going Solar Mary Wildfire May 15, 2020
False Solutions to Climate Change: Buildings
Estimations for the percentage of greenhouse gases emitted by the buildings sector vary wildly. But any assessment should include both the embodied energy involved in constructing new buildings and the energy costs of heating, cooling and lighting buildings. More
Issues: Climate Chaos, False solutions

Going Solar Mary Wildfire May 15, 2020
False Solutions to Climate Change: Agriculture
It’s become increasingly clear that climate change is not only real but beginning to bite. Now that much of the population is finally feeling the urgency—and during a time when COVID19  has much of our frenetic commerce on hold, giving us a space for thinking and discussion–what can we do to protect the only planet we’ve got? More
Issues: Climate Chaos, False solutions

Going Solar Mary Wildfire May 15, 2020
False Solutions to Climate Change: Transportation
It’s become increasingly clear that climate change is not only real but beginning to bite. Now that much of the population is finally feeling the urgency—and during a time when COVID19  has much of our frenetic commerce on hold, giving us a space for thinking and discussion–what can we do to protect the only planet we’ve got? More
Issues: Climate Chaos, False solutions

Going Solar Mary Wildfire May 10, 2020
False Solutions to Climate Change: Electricity
It’s become increasingly clear that climate change is not only real but beginning to bite. Now that much of the population is finally feeling the urgency—and during a time when COVID19  has much of our frenetic commerce on hold, giving us a space for thinking and discussion–what can we do to protect the only planet we’ve got? More
Issues: Climate Chaos, False solutions, Pollution, Renewable energy

Going Solar Mary Wildfire November 25, 2018
Review of Drawdown: the most comprehensive plan ever proposed to reverse global warming
Drawdown was a major collaborative effort involving 70 research fellows from 40 countries. It’s not so much a cohesive plan as a list of partial solutions: 80 that are tested and in use at least somewhere in the world, and another 20 that are speculative. More
Issues: Climate Chaos, Extreme energy, Renewable energy

Going Solar Mary Wildfire September 10, 2018
Review of Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America by Eliza Griswold
After reading two reviews of this recently published book, I was interested enough to ask my local library, the Roane County Library, to purchase it. They did. Now I’ve read it and am writing another review, for you. More
Issues: Fracking, Pollution

Going Solar Mary Wildfire July 26, 2018
West Virginians Do Not Want China’s Appalachian Gas Investments: #NoASH #PetroFreeWV
Not everyone here in West Virginia thinks building Cancer Alley #2 along the entire Ohio River border of our state would be wonderful. Far from it! More
Issues: Fracking, Pipelines, Pollution

Going Solar Mary Wildfire August 31, 2017
FERC is a Sugar Daddy
FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, is the kind of regulatory agency any industry would love. More
Issues: FERC, Pipelines