Mad Mike Magee’s Musings

APRIL 2007  was unusual for the UK. The whole month was dead hot, and then the rains set in.  The swifts looked unhappy, two months of rain after the first of May doesn’t give them much chance to feed their little chicks.

But this April is far more like a regular English April. We append below a pic of how the  Sanyo solar panels have done so far this month. Of course, fuel prices have gone up since we took advantage of the Department of Trade and Industry’s “generous” 50 per cent grant.

A WHOLE YEAR of solar panels on the top of what used to be INQ Central, and these charts below give you an idea of the output of the 15 Sanyo solar panels on our roof.

The money we got back is slightly less than the £309 on this page below, but on the other hand we’re in credit with the electricity supplier and haven’t paid an electricity bill during all this time.

The amortisation rate is still, as we’ve said in the INQ before, about eight years. In early April we did have snow and I’m not climbing on the roof to sweep it off, so for practically a whole day the blanket of crystals delivered not particularly brilliant solar results, except back to the clear blue sky.

On the other bright side, the pigeons couldn’t poo on our arrayed panels and went skiing instead. ♥

TOOK A TRIP TODAY to Talakaddu, in Karnataka, a place where apparently 35 temples and a palace are under the sands of the Kauveri river.

The archaeological department is working as hard as it can to rescue the remains from this ancient site, but there’s so much to do and little money to spend on it.

Nevertheless, the reconstruction of a Vishnu temple is well under way, and to illumine the inside of the part the department has restored, it’s using solar panels to power the lights.

Meanwhile, on another part of the site, here’s a shot of the side of a temple illustrating a pair of rings carved from the same stone.

Right now we’re gazing at the Chamundi Hills, just outside Mysore, and using modern tech to get an ancient message across. ♥

THE SOLAR panels on the roof didn’t disappoint in February.  They belted out a heap of electricity - or bijli as we prefer - despite this month being as dour as an Aberdonian when he’s forced to shell out a shilling for the toilet.

Aye, it’s true there were some days where Mr Sun hardly had a chance to see the wood for the trees, but the golden thing in the sun continues to shine and if it does, the panels pick up on it, no problem at all.

We wonder, however, whether there would be any chance of amortisation without government grants to speed the Kyoceras and Sanyos of this world on their way.

Although we’re not against pigeons, like London mayor Ken Livingstone, we also wonder how to clean the doodoo off array number one of 15 without climbing on the roof and risking life and limb or using catapults loaded with lumps of bread so they roost somewhere else.

The preferred method is little spikes so the rock pigeons feel unsafe when they alight.  ♥

MIKE SPLINTER, who used to work for Chipzilla until he was nabbed by Applied Materials, has obviously got an attack of  solar euphoria.

The Wall Street Journal reports Applied has won a $1.9 billion deal to sell kit to firms producing photo-voltaic solar panels, although the company that  placed the order isn’t named.

We think the Journal’s Don Clark, who has recently taken to writing about motherboards, knows which firm it is.

It’s a privately held non-American firm. PV solar panels are great, just as long as governments give you a grant if you’re a householder to help you work out an amortisation rate that’s realistic.
The cher price of Applied shot up on the news, according to the Journal, here. You’ll need a sub to read it.