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July 24, 2008

Comments

Branedy

You should start having your summers in July like everyone else, then you would save a lot ;-)

nomad496

Or perhaps, we should start having OUR summers in January. It would really cut down on the heating bills.
nomad496
Oregon, USA

Earl Mardle

and boy are you going to need to cut the heating bills. Now here in the sayowth we know how to do winter.

I took a photo of the frost this year, we DID have 2, but it was
still worth taking a pic

We do summers pretty well too.

Mind you we are lining up for a serious storm from the Aussies tomorrow so I'd better shut my mouth.

nomad496

Our winters get a little worse than that, but not all that much worse. I have some shots of our place, including some winter ones here It mostly just rains (and rains)here. The coldest temperature that I have recorded here in 15 years is -9 C. Our heating bills are very small since we heat solely with wood. It makes our electric bill the envy of my coworkers.
Steve/ nomad 496

Earl Mardle

To coin a phrase, cool. I'm envious of all the space you guys have to work with, we will definitely be an URBAN homestead.

Meanwhile, another storm has been spawned by the Aussies and flicked in our direction. Not as rough as last weekend but still worth battening the hatches for. Can't wait till we get the solar hot water system and PV backup installed.

nomad496

I will be really interested in how your PV system goes. I really want to install one here, but the up-front costs are bit steep at the moment. The state is considering a tax credit to help underwrite the systems, but with the economy that is by no means a done deal. I have about a half-acre of land (yeah I know, space) that has good south and western exposure that I could erect a nice system on and graze sheep underneath. I am worried about the inevitable unforeseen difficulties putting in an installation that large. I am looking at the possibility of erecting some sort of modular system, where I could build it out over time. Its just not something to rush into.

Good luck with your storm, Do they come out of the Southern Bight of Australia? I have read that there are a lot of storms there. My knowledge of that part of the world is not as good as it should be.

Earl Mardle

That extra quarter acre makes ALL the difference eh?

On PV there's a company here that does refurbished batteries which is the major component cost and we plan to dfo it in stages, first the battery set for about $1500 with the controlled/inverter and charge uit off the mains. Then add modular collectors as we can or as the price falls.

Said company is currently advertising a complete system for about NZ$13,000 which is close to doable.

As for storms, no, not out of the bight, they are being spawned on the north NSW coast where they do almost nothing to help the drought, and then flicked off across the Tasman where they naturally drift south and drop all that water on us, usually in the north where they do nothing to help the hydro lakes storage, bleeding perfect.

When we lived in Aus we noticed that over the last few years the weather systems that used to bring winter rains from the Indian Ocean to NSW have pushed south off the coast and in the last two years these storm suystems have been forming around the NSW Queensland border but right on the coast.

nomad496

Have you looked at the data maps for Jason and TOPEX/Poseidon showing ocean temps? http://topex-www.jpl.nasa.gov/science/time-series-data.html Do you know if the sea temperature patterns changed in the Indian Ocean over time? That may have a hand in how the storm and rain patterns have changed. I know that temperature changes around the Philippines will trigger El Ninos up here in Oregon.

We are having another problem that does not get much press outside of here with the ocean. The sea temperature change has created an anoxic dead zone that is killing all the young salmon up here. Just wonderful; our fisheries are collapsing. Many of our fishermen are NOT the big factory ships, but small coastal boats, many of which still use long lines instead of nets.

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