April 9, 2014
Guest post by New England Clean Energy Customer Carl Howe Since my solar energy system was installed in Dec. 2013, and turned on in Jan. 2014, I’ve had a lot of questions from friends and neighbors about the process. Here is a summary of how I went solar through the Stow Solar Challenge in Stow,… Read the entire post »
January 24, 2014
Guest Post by New England Clean Energy Customer Eric Richard “You cannot manage what you cannot measure… and what gets measured gets done.” – Bill Hewlett Mark likes to say his customers become more energy-efficient after installing solar in an effort to zero out their electric bills. That definitely happened to us when New… Read the entire post »
June 25, 2013
Guest post by Roy Van Cleef, New England Clean Energy Technical Sales I generally tell customers that regular rain showers in New England keep solar panels clear of dust and pollen. But after a recent, particularly heavy accumulation of pollen on every exposed outdoor surface, I was curious as to the specific effect of the… Read the entire post »
May 16, 2012
A potential customer contacted me a couple of weeks ago. She lives in a town with a municipal utility. She asked me about a solar array on her house. The first thing I did was pull up the satellite image. From the satellite image, you can see that the roof is nearly east/west facing. I… Read the entire post »
May 31, 2011
I recently had an energy audit done by a company who shall remain nameless (their service after the audit has been embarrassing). Despite their post-visit incompetence, I did learn a few things, and I started a project to evaluate where my energy goes. Here’s a quick summary* [graphic no longer available]: First: Yes I am… Read the entire post »
April 1, 2011
Now that we have a solar hot water system, I’ve been computing the contribution to the water heating load. My house is at 42.5 degrees latitude in eastern Massachusetts. My solar panels are tilted at 45 degrees and the roof azimuth is 250 degrees (south is 180 degrees, southwest is 225 degrees, west is 270… Read the entire post »
March 31, 2011
Try this game. See if you can figure out what types of businesses will go away first as energy gets more and more expensive. The demise of Harry & David (You know, the company that packages up the best looking fruit and ships it all over the place for big bucks…) got me thinking that… Read the entire post »
I started writing The Energy Miser in 2011 because I like to analyze energy issues and pontificate about my findings. Got a topic you want me to cover? Let me know.
