I try to come up with a useful post for educators as we approach earth day. Earth Day offers a great day to highlight the challenge of climate change which is so easy to forget in the midst of other concerns. In the long run, the urgency of addressing climate change at this time is possibly greater than other concerns that preoccupy our political processes and our attention.
There are plenty of only Earth Day resources for educators, but I will offer a few for those who have not had the opportunity to search.
Free Tech 4 Teachers Suggestions
By chance, I can offer something a little more personal this year. I have been interested in solar panels for some time. We decided to move beyond my small-scale explorations and add solar panels to our home. The process has stretched over a couple of years. By chance, the process was completed this week. We now have our panels installed, know they work, but still must wait for our power company to approve the installation and make the connection.
The delays or the past year or so involved 1) needing to replace our shingles which had some hail damage and were old (you don’t want to pay for panel installation if you will have to pay for their removal and reinstallation within a year or two) and 2) waiting for the solar panel subsidy to be renewed in a new year. We were told that our investment would not actually cover the cost because our electrical bills were low. We use natural gas for heating our home, cooking, and heating our water. These commitments are new and we won’t change for some years. I suppose air conditioning is our largest use of electricity. Maybe we will add an electric vehicle within a couple of years. We installed solar because we wanted to be involved in alternate energy production.
Here are a few photos I took of the process.
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