2009-05-28

White roofs and PPA electricity

Noticed a couple of green ideas that are interesting.

The first is painting your roof white or at least making it as light a colour as possible. Simple, and supposedly if everyone did it, it would help counteract global warming. But that seems to be debatable and the likelihood of everyone doing it is pretty slim. Still, it makes a lot of sense that a white roof should reflect the UV and keep your house cooler.

http://www.climatechange.ca.gov/events/2008_conference/presentations/2008-09-09/Hashem_Akbari.pdf

The second idea has a clear benefit. There are a couple of companies in the US setting up residential solar power purchasing agreement. Basically you get solar panels on your roof for zero down. The power generated offsets up to 90% of your utility power. When you send watts into the grid you pay the company for that amount. This is how they make money on the deal, after 15-18 years you own the panels free and clear. Unfortunately, I haven't seen anything like this in Canada.

http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/003737.php

GDC

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