carl, i have one. it heats that hot water on demand. they are fantastic. no hot water tank. so much cheaper on gas and electric.

Yes they do and you better have a pocket full of money to pay that gas bill with that system!The solar system preheats the water and a big part of the time it never needs to kick the gas on to heat the water,and after the last few raises on the utility bills I’m real proud of that.It takes so many BTUs to heat the water to a set temperature that I don’t see at this time whether a system like the one you mentioned could ever rival one using solar heating along with gas.I’m not quite sure what you mean about keeping the house so I can’t reply to that. T.Boone is making an effort and it goes along some what with how I think on the subject of energy.I like most of his ideas.

also carl, mobile gas already has something you can purchase that will only heat water when needed and reach the degree to which it is set. no waiting.

carl, i would be more concerned with keeping that house period.

To the authors, perhaps the most troublesome part of Pickens Plan includes a far-reaching expansion of the use of eminent domain. There is no disputing that Pickens Plan’s success hinges on the widespread confiscation of private property.

the Pickens Plan is adopted, T.Bone Pickens, already a billionaire, will almost inevitably become even wealthier, the authors believe. Pickens has earned his wealth in the energy industry and chairs BP Capital Management, a hedge fund that invests in the exact things Pickens is promoting - natural gas and wind energy. A Pickens firm, Mesa Power, plans to invest ten billion dollars in the world’s largest wind farm. If Pickens is successful in his Pickens Plan lobbying for an extension of wind power tax credits until 2018, Pickens’ firm “stands to receive between $1.66 billion and about $3 billion in PTC payments alone over ten years, a significant portion of its original investment,” report Epstein and Ridenour.

LOL,yep those cold sea showers do bring a lot of hollering and squealing!I’ve had a solar hot water heater for over 20 years now and when it was on the roof it paid for itself many times over.A lot of the days I have gotten water out of it at 170 degrees f. and into the tank.When I had my roof replaced after Katrina,I left it on the ground and it doesn’t do as good a job in that position.Oil will be with us for some time into the future but it will be phased out over time.I believe natural gas will last longer and then solar,wind and nuclear will be the dominant sources for us.I know this doesn’t make OPEC happy and they will not take it laying down but it’s just a matter of time.It would seem prudent to start now for the long change over and it would probably take our life times for it to occur.

we have solar, wind, coal power now. i do not worry about getting run over by it.

2008 June 20 Too little and too late Senator McCain has just proposed that the U.S. build 45 nuclear power reactors by the year 2032. That is too few by a factor of at least 10 and maybe 100. 10 is required to generate our electricity by nuclear energy, and 100 may be required if we are to replace natural gas for home heating and replace gasoline by hydrogen obtained by splitting water with nuclear energy. At 2 billion dollars per plant the cost is either 900 billion or 9 trillion, which our ten trillion dollar per year economy can afford.

i am just worried about who is going to pay for all this. so get ready to pay.

Carl, I wasn’t implying you said it; just some people have state this as fact, which it is not.  I agree we need to start gearing up for wind and for coal power now, oil won’t last forever, but until they can make it happen and affordable we need to tap our natural resources.  I would gladly welcome wind/coal power if it is same price or cheaper than our current processes.  I also believe we should be using natural gas as much as possible, but right no Mobile Gas is raping me each month, I can’t convince the wife to take cold sea showers, so I guess I’ll have to suck it up and pay.

I don’t believe I have ever said it’d take 10-20years to see the results from drilling successful oil wells but some might have.We still need oil and natural gas at this time to continue but at some point we are going to have to change our sources of energy and now is the time to prepare to make the change over less painful for everyone.Sooner or later the change will come and now is the time to start slowly switching,to make our supplies of oil and gas last much longer as we use less and make us less reliant on other countries for our needs.In my opinion it just makes good sense to prepare for the eventual demise of oil.

Coal and wind power are great ideas, but we need to drill now.  America has enough natural resources to satisfy our demand for a very long time or long enough for the wind/coal power to be cost effective and on line.  And before you start spewing the bull about oil drilling will not be viable for 10-20 years as some have said, I work in the oil field business, and I know for a fact in west Texas they are drilling and coming online with new natural gas wells every 36 days. Yes in the Fort Stockton area a new natural gas well is operational every 36 days. Oil wells take a little longer but not 10-20 years. (spelling and grammar checked as per seektruth’s request)