What is 350.org?

350 represents what a community of leading scientists call the safe upper limit of CO2 in our atmosphere (measured in parts per million)

The number 350 is based on a peer-reviewed abstract released in January 2008, recognizing the parts per million impact on global climate change.

Our current level - 390 parts per million and rising …

350.org is sponsoring a number of events - 4,517 across 173 countries to be exact - that bring awareness to this number in an International Day of Climate Action.

This video helps to explain a bit more … The Colbert Report with 350.org Founder

Join us in Palo Alto on Saturday to help raise awareness and “lower the bar” so to speak … Our Event

Okay – I know that many people out there are like me and prefer to do things themselves and take unique pride in the sweat equity of a great home improvement project. And I know that there are many more people out there who would see a solar water heating installation as an opportunity to bear down, get dirty, and start saving some home energy. Unfortunately, most people simply don’t have the experience to pull off a world-class solar water heating installation despite the greatest intentions… The man or woman that coined the phrase “The devil is in the details” might have been a solar water heating installer.

Now it might seem foolish to divulge these hard-earned tricks of the trade here, in our blog, but in the spirit of progress, we here at PolarSolar want to help those along through the not-so-simple pleasures of mounting, sealing, plumbing, flashing, running, insulating, charging, troubleshooting, and fixing of solar water heating systems. So in no particular order…

Exterior Glycol Lines: Cover Them!

Exposed glycol carrying lines should have a metal cover: We custom fabricate metal sheathing to run our lines in and we paint them to match the roof color or building color if run along the exterior or otherwise visible from the street. Why? The first reason is that the painted armaflex will degrade – split, crack, and pock up - end up looking like something for Halloween and it will not do its job of insulating that hot glycol. The second reason is that it keeps birds and other animals from picking at it, eating it, and using it for nesting material.

Another point about the line runs is that they should be slightly elevated to allow runoff and avoid catching leaves and other debris that can build up over time and become a fire hazard.

So cover and elevate those lines!!!

The following graph represents CO2 pollution in the average home as compared to the average car (the average car getting 21 mpg, and the average American household of 3.3 people). An important note to make is that this does not include CO2 that was generated offsite (i.e. emissions from electricity generation). This paints a candid picture of what is happening in homes all across the country. We have done a good job of pointing out the need for a better fuel economy on the road, but we would argue that more can be done to bring awareness to the carbon emissions given off each day at home. In other words … we are paying a lot of attention to the pollution on the left, and very little to that on the right.

The Green Home Center started with Dietmar Brand’s vision … to create a sustainable and healthy living space that honors our natural environment. Visit The Green Home Center and you will find everything under the sun when it comes to alternative, affordable and sustainable choices you can make in the home. Dietmar is a visionary and infuses passion in his work - and it shows. If you would like to be kept up to date on events being held at the Center - everything from vegetarian cooking classes to organic wine tasting to creating natural body/facial scrubs and washes from natural foods found in the supermarket, feel free to join the newsletter.

PolarSolar is very happy to have joined San Francisco’s Green Home Center as ours is a common vision - to empower people to create sustainable and healthy living spaces that reduce our carbon footprint and increase our positive contribution to the community. Dietmar says it best … “It is your life and your home … live well.”

Alan and Toby Cooper of Palo Alto are now the proud owners of a top-of-the-line solar hot water system. The installation is a dual-tank system with a natural gas backup. The installation was straightforward and came off without a hitch thanks to careful preparation and planning.

The house was built around 1910 (all redwood construction). Roof penetrations are very important - all homeowners are especially concerned about this as they should be, so a few comments on best practices with regard to roofing and penetrations: YOU CANNOT RELY ON CHEMICALS FOR SEALANT. A chemical waterproofing must be used in conjunction with a physical/structural sealing to go “above and beyond” certainty that the roof penetrations will not leak. On this sloped roof, we flush mounted the brackets by lagging stainless steel bolts through matching washers directly into the rafter and finish the penetrations using a DAP 3D sealant and Henry’s 209 cold tar. The bolt/washer combination provides structural waterproofing while the 3d and cold tar provides an added chemical seal. Additionally, proper flashing is used to direct runoff away from the penetrations.

Home Power Magazine for August/September 2009 had a great article on this. We get this question a lot so Im going to post the response that we just recently gave that explains basically that climate context is key here…

“The ‘devil is in the details’ as well with regard to collectors. Evacuated tube collectors function ideally in very cold / low light climates and in certain industrial applications. They do achieve higher temperatures inside the tubes. However, these higher temperatures pose problems in applications in our climate (California). “Home Power” actually just featured an article comparing the efficiencies of flat plate and evacuated tube collectors and found that the efficiency of the flat plates with selective absorption coating is much higher in our operating temperature range (see the attached graph from “Home Power August/September 2009”).

My main concern with evacuated tube collectors for domestic hot water locally is the overheating issue. It would seem that going with an evacuated tube system would be a good solution for having less than 100% ideal orientation, but the reality is that we end up “hunting rabbit with buck shot” and causing problems: These collectors will overheat and go into “stagnation” many, many times. With the collector you specified, we would be relying on the “snap-disk” system to hold up and manage the overheating of the system many times over, and the heat transfer fluid in the system would degrade faster as well. This issue itself really compromises efficiency and cost-effectiveness…”