On both tanks I have added some extra external insulation a bubble foil wrapping around them. Using standard water shut-off valves creatively, the flow from the outside tank can be routed to the hot supply, mixed with the inside tank, or routed just to the inside tank, which uses propane from time to time when rainy or cloudy weather hits. The limited use of LP gas can be more economical than keeping connected to natural gas when you consider the Gas Company’s monthly connection fees.
And here is my tiny array of nine 8.5watt solar panels that produces 12 volts at an average of 3 to 4 amperes, and peaking at 5 amperes. It also features my manual tracking mechanism.
These panels combined with the newest bright white LEDs, light all the interior rooms using very little energy. The 30 plus LEDs combined use only 250 milliamps, so they can keep on lighting the whole interior 24 hours daily even in cloudy rainy weather.
The most recent electric bill showed a measured 8% reduction in the electricity usage compared to the same period the previous year.
Much like an investment account or retirement plan -- an early start is the key to realizing a lucrative long-term payoff. The plan is really more important because it will help to sustain our future survival.
Great satisfaction derived from this harmless hobby. First and foremost it is part of the arsenal to battle the dreaded GLOBAL WARMING we are hearing more and more about. Second, the ENERGY generated by the panels is FREE, not TAXED by federal, state or local governments.
Third, INCREASED FREEDOM from many finance related worries:
Fourth, no pollution, no displaced inhabitants, no wars for oil, no land mines, no impoverished farmers being lured into clearcutting their very existence away for a quick buck with no education for transition to their suddenly modern world railroaded in on a corporate “FAST TRACK”.
You don’t have be a “consumer” of disneyfied homogenized main street USA products that were advertised on TV for our existence to be justified.
Our happiness doesn’t require cheap, individually packaged microwaveable processed foods, while watching TV shows saturated with super-slick consumer inducements via wireless, cable and satellite.
In a fast food society spectators watch the world served up with glitter and flash, yet remain way out of touch with the tough realities facing the majority of earth's inhabitants.
I exercised some individual freedom to choose a renewable clean source of energy -- the sun -- true “distributed energy”.