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- Last published on July 06, 2008
Opus
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Add Tags- Posted: July 06, 2008
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Opus by Berkeley Breathed
Opus, the little penguin with the big beak and even bigger heart who sold more than 6 million books and had 70 million readers in the phenomenally popular comic strips, Bloom County (1980-1989) and Outland (1989-1995), now graces the Sunday comics sections of nearly 200 newspapers.
Opus got his break in cartooning when he popped up in Bloom County some 20 years ago and became an instant American icon. But Bloom County and its successor, the Sunday-only Outland, had several characters and Opus wasn“t always at center stage. Now he gets his chance.
© 2008 Berkeley Breathed - All Rights Reserved.
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Well, given that there appear to be at least three panels on the roof in that strip and given that a 185w Mitsubishi solar panel costs around $900 and up, that fill-up has so far cost at least around $2,700.00
Plus, since One Horsepower equals 745watts you would need at least FOUR panels to produce the equivalent power of ONE horsepower. Obviously you’re shoving all this into a battery so the car can drive and you can’t exactly buy 200 panels at a cost of $180,000 so that you can juice up a 50hp battery pack overnight. I’m GUESSING a 50hp battery pack because that car doesn’t actually exist yet. That Inverter?
Well, you would have to still be ON the grid, because todays standard household power is a 200amp service and that would take 135 panels at a cost of over $120,000, not to mention the acreage you’d need to own to set up that many panels. Even if you cut that in half and went back to the electrical loads common in 50 years ago, you’d still be looking at close to 70 panels. Oh, and that’s a repeating expense. They have a lifespan 20 years. Or at least they’re supposed to. The CFL lightbulbs I have all over my house are supposed to last 6000 hours too.
Oh, about that inverter?
An “ON grid” 5000w SMA is about $3,500.
Even if I assume that you only have the 27 panels needed to justify that inverter, that’s about $28,000 to produce enough electricity to support 1/4 of the common everyday household electricity load. And THAT’S when the sun is shining. And the nonexistent bug-like plug-in hybrid? You’re charging that ON the grid, because you for bleeep sure ain’t making enough juice to charge it OFF the grid. Not when a 50hp engine is the equivalent power of a 37ki;owatt generator.
Alternative power is a great idea. But a lot of people have some very distorted notions of what it’s capable of and that includes solar power.
You want a cheap and effective use of solar energy?
Try a Solar Hot Water Heater. At least there you’re capturing more than a trivial fraction of the power coming down.
Posted: about 6 hours ago