Went to a green festival at the county fairgrounds

[seemunkee]

Talked to 4 companies that are doing geothermal. Last summer I started looking into it and had a hard time finding anyone in the area that was doing it. Lots of people offering energy audit services(think I'll win one of the raffles for one?)
Talked to a local rep for Green switch. Sounds like a good idea, but a bit expensive $65 for outlet or switch plus $90 for the master switch, probably take several years to recover the cost.
Surprisingly only a couple of companies offering PV. There were actually more companies selling organic fair trade chocolate.
Considerng how full the parking lot was I would say it was pretty successful, lots of people learning and hopefully making changes in their homes.

[Mojorabbit]

1. When I bought my solar freezer

I was amazed at how hard it was to find anyone who could walk us through the installation. We had to have the panels shipped all the way from Miami. We finally found someone to install it and it ended up he did it wrong. It is working fine now and we have learned alot in the process. Plenty of people install solar water heaters but that is about it.

[WhiteTara]

2. solar freezer?

oh, now that is divine! How does it work?

[Mojorabbit]

4. Once we figured out out

to properly install it it works wonderfully. It is a chest freezer and can keep food frozen for up to
(I think) a week without any power due to insulation. Other than a few blown fuses no problems.

[seemunkee]

3. I saw a solar freezer there

Had never seen one before.
How do you like yours?

[Mojorabbit]

5. We like it.

I bought the biggest one they had, I think 8 cu. It has two baskets that fit on the side inside for small things and works great.
We got this one.
http://www.sundanzer.com/Products.html

[Javaman]

6. Do you mind me asking how much you paid for it? nt

[Mojorabbit]

7. I paid an

outrageous nine hundred dollars for it, then bought two panels, battery and charge controller. After the year we got hit with three hurricanes and had no power or ice in the sweltering heat, I wanted a back up so got the freezer. Bonus is that someday we want to be off the grid and this was a small start.

[Delphinus]

8. Off the grid -

I was listening to Talk of the Nation yesterday and he was speaking with a guy who blogs for the NYT about his prostate cancer. One of the folks who called in lived in Camel Dump, Nevada (I know Camel was in there, as well as Nevada) and he's got cancer of the everything. BUT what was interesting about the call was the guy lived off the grid. He talked some of his living conditions and I found it wonderful to hear someone talk about what he does living off the grid.

[Mojorabbit]

9. It is one of my dreams

but for a newbie there is a steep learning curve. I wish there were more companies out there who did installation for small projects to help us learn.