Welcome to Solar Focal Point

Energy is Ubiquitous. Everywhere you look, energy is present in some form or another. This site is designed to find ways for a clever, motivated individual to put that energy to work. Major needs for energy are:

1. Heating Water for personal care and Food Preparation

2. Transportation (personal cars, commercial transport, rail transport which is ironically mostly used for the transport of fuel products like coal)

3. Industrial uses like running motors, heating production furnaces etc., Commercial food preparation.

4. Space heating to keep our homes and work places warm.

5. Lighting. Home, office, and roadway lighting

6. Domestic food preparation

First on my list is heating water. Heating water costs the average household of 4 people approximately $800 per year. Installing a reliable solar DHW is one risk free solar technology in terms of finances and environmental impact.

The other uses of energy in a household present problems. Either the energy saved is cheap relative to system cost, or the specific energy demand is highly variable, or the nature of the energy demand inherently precludes solar (not enough light for the power needed). Some of these problems can be overcome, and this is the fun challenge for the DIY builder.

Can you come up with a system that is financially and environmentally effective?

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Here are some icons I use throughout the site:

= A link to a Wikipedia.org article
= A key point for the subject
= A point of possible danger
= A point of view I feel is dubious
= A self contradiction