Cob Alternative Energy in the PNW

[Catherine Harper]

On Tue, 18 Aug 1998, Brian Jewett wrote:

> My question is if there is any successful use of solar or other
> alternative energy sources in the area short of cutting up the trees and
> burning them?

We've been looking at lot at passive heating and cooling using stable
underground temperature, which isn't solar, but is pretty neat.  I've also
been hearing a lot about solar shingles -- shingles that work as solar
collectors (offsetting some of the cost since you have to put a roof on
anyway).  What's neat about this is that the systems that have been being
used locally have a meter that runs boths ways.  So you're still on the
grid, but you sell the company your extra power in the summer, and get
credit for the power you use in the winter.  (I kept on thinking what a
great system this would have been for the areas that were threantened with
blackouts from high power consumption during the heat wave...)

Anyone heard anything else?  This is all pretty random for us -- we aren't
looking at building for a few more years, so we haven't gotten serious
about research yet.

				Catherine