Half of the paver stones are out… Almost there!

Although this was an issue we encountered during the initial pre-purchase inspection, we found out later that the foundation had been repaired.

That was a close call!

Lorenzo glanced at his watch again as the sun escaped over the horizon. It read 7:37. The days were becoming shorter. Autumn was almost upon him. He always did hold a predilection for the night, although, when asked, he could never quite describe a specific reason behind it. “It’s when cool things happen”, he would manage to say only to be met by unsatisfied quizzical stares from whoever asked him. “Then how come you never do anything?”, would be the question that would follow most of the time. He didn’t have an answer for that, and it bothered him.

It wasn’t that he cared about appeasing his interrogators’ curiosity. He could care less. Somehow he sensed that the more they knew the less they would understand anyway. They were all like that, just looking to escape their own empty lives by delving into someone else’s personal life. And sucking them dry.

But tonight he was not going to worry about that. Not tonight.

Over the weekend I was having a discussion with a friend of mine about going green. He argued that more people would use solar panels if they were not ugly. He elaborated that solar panels look ugly because of their reflective surfaces. At the time I thought that solar panels couldn’t reflect light because that would defeat the purpose of the solar panel. They are weak as they are, let alone to be reflecting some of the energy that reaches it.

However, this left me thinking. At the time we were at the beach so there was no real way to verify this fact. So, I researched the matter when I got back home and found out that the problem is a bit more complex than that.

The panels do have a coating of glass to protect the silicon layers that are actually absorbing the energy. However, silicon is shiny, so in between these two layers, there is a coating of anti-reflective material to reduce the amount of energy lost to reflection. (http://science.howstuffworks.com/solar-cell3.htm)

Solar panels still reflect a lot of the energy that they receive. On today’s solar cells, only around 12 to 18 percent of the energy is used, the rest is reflected. This is because most cells use whatever they receive naturally from the sun. Cutting edge cells concentrate the light to improve performance to around 40.7 percent. (http://www.energy.gov/print/4503.htm)

This is still a terrible waste. I can see why some activists will see the sun and think that there is the answer to our energy needs. They may not realize that we just don’t have the technology to capture it yet.

So, do people think that solar panels are ugly? Yup: http://www.groovygreen.com/groove/?p=1185. However, this is more because they don’t like deviations from uniformity than because of how the panels’ appearance. Besides, you can always make the argument that since it’s needed, then it doesn’t really matter how it looks. You don’t stop using scuba gear underwater just because it hides your facial features and therefore makes you appear “ugly”.

Arguments can be made for either side, but here are my two cents: solar panels are appealing because of what they represent, not because of how they look.

A few months ago, in an effort to tighten my economic belt, I analyzed where I spent my money each month. I was surprised to find out that most of my money did not go to entertainment, but instead it was going towards my daily nourishment. Now, I understood that I couldn’t just stop eating, but I could change how much I spent in the process.

And so began my daily lunch routine. Restaurant visits got replaced by trips to HEB or trips home. What a difference. Before, I would normally spend around $10 for lunch, I now spend around $4. Multiply that by 20 or so weekdays per month and I’m currently saving around $80. I still get to eat good and healthy food, I have time to rummage through slashdot.org or browse the net. Everybody wins!