Living On The Top Of The Windy Mountain

Posted on December 27, 2010 by bill

Its always blowing here, perfect place for a windmill if the township allowed me to have one. Last night though was really windy. It was so windy in fact that the wind tore off a piece of the fascia on one end of my house, and the wind blowing through the vents in my garage turned it into a huge tuned cavity that growls. Then there is the 3 foot drifts of snow completely covering my front sidewalk.

I cannot repair the fascia damage, I will have to hire someone with the appropriate tools and materials to do that. It might have to wait a while, as I would not want anyone climbing a ladder in 50 mile an hour wind gusts, not to mention the well below freezing temperature. I will have to clear the front walk as soon as the wind lets up a bit.

I think that had I known how windy it is here, I would have bought land somewhere else. The top of the mountain here (elevation 1853 feet) does have advantages in the summer though. With the nice breeze and cooler temperatures, air conditioning is rarely needed. It doesn’t flood here either 🙂

At my age, I doubt if I will ever move again. If I could pick another place to live, the mountains might not be my first choice, but I would definitely look for a wooded area. I love having the trees and the wildlife surround me, and having the birds and animals visit my backyard every day.

Who wouldn’t want to see this guy?

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Cockroaches Avoid Silver!

Posted on December 19, 2010 by bill

Who would have thought?

Researchers at the Seoul National University impregnated the resin used to make laminate flooring with colloidal silver. Not only did the silver inhibit bacterial growth on the floor surface, but surprisingly, cockroaches avoided it.

In the test of cockroach avoidance, for the silver iontreated,
laminate wood flooring, the relative avoidance rate
was 88.2% and 86.0%, before and after environmental
treatment, respectively. With colloidal silver treatment
onto the surface of the laminate flooring, using MF resin
for overlay paper impregnation, we have found an
environmentally friendly, interior material. Under this
framework, our data facilitate further study and insight
into the biological effects of colloidal silver. In particular to
obtain an explanation for cockroach avoidance of colloidal
silver impregnated surfaces.

It makes me wonder how cockroaches could sense silver in the laminate in the first place, and why they would avoid it in the second. Are roaches smarter than people?

You can download the report at www.adhesion.org if you feel so inclined to read about roaches 🙂

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Self Defining Hebrew

Posted on December 16, 2010 by bill

First off, I do not read nor do I speak Hebrew, but I found some things very interesting about the language.

Some years ago, I ran across a presentation that showed that every Hebrew letter could be recreated by the shadow cast by one geometric solid object.  The object resembled a flame, and by positioning the light source and the object’s orientation correctly, every letter was produced perfectly.   This strongly suggests that every letter was perfectly designed and not accidental or a product of evolution.  Imagine trying to find a single shape which would recreate all the characters of the modern alphabet!.

This discovery was made by Stan Tenen, who has spent decades researching the  ancient languages from a mathematical perspective.  You can find his work at the Meru Foundation website, http://www.meru.org  Mr. Tenen also states that the 27 Hebrew letters can be divided into 3 groups of nine which divide the set into Archetypes, Inner or Spiritual, and Outer or Physical attributes.  This lends even more credence to the Hebrew language being highly engineered and not just some willy nilly collection of symbols.

Recently, I discovered another group of researchers who call themselves the Chronicle Project.    They have discovered that each Hebrew letter represents a concept, and that a Hebrew word is fully defined by the combined concepts of its letters.  Therefore, any single word has but one definition, no matter where or how it is used.  They call this Self Defining Hebrew.  The Chronicle Project is using these concepts to reveal the ancient texts in their original form, without any translational or doctrinal errors.  In essence, this makes Hebrew as precise as any computer language.

The Chronicle Project can be found at http://www.thechronicleproject.org and you can watch their teaser video on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xshXjAduNaY

I have long felt that our true history, the history of mankind has been kept secret from us through distorted language and forbidden archaeology.  For me, this is one more validation that we are not who or what we have been told we are.

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Kudos to Doctor Tipperman

Posted on July 31, 2010 by bill

In a previous post, I detailed my experience with cataract surgery, lens implants, and the ruinous results I was left with. I also said that I would provide an update if anything changed, so here it is.

After visits with several other eye doctors, I was referred to a Dr. Tipperman, who is a Will’s Eye Hospital associate, and who specializes in removing and inserting intraocular lens implants. I went to see Dr. Tipperman at one of his branch offices in Philadelpha, and within 10 minutes, he determined why my left implant was causing me so much trouble. It so happens that the implant ( a Technis multifocal) installed by the original surgeon was not centered in my eye correctly, and I was always looking through the line in the bifocal of the lens. He offered to realign the lens, or explant it and install a new lens of my choice.

I chose to have a toric lens implanted. A toric lens is one which corrects for far vision, and astigmatism (it has a spherical and a cylinder correction but no near vision correction). Dr. Tipperman set up a schedule for the surgery on my left eye, and offered to contact the lens manufacturer to ask that the lens be donated to save me the $1800 cost of the lens.

The surgery itself was uneventful. I was awake during the procedure, which only took a few minutes. Dr. Tipperman inserted the new lens underneath the old one, and then cut the old one into pieces with very tiny scissors and removed it. During my checkup the next day, he found that my intraocular pressure had increased quite a bit, and so he drained a little fluid from my eye to relieve it. I had no further trouble with it, and the next day had very good distant vision in my left eye.

At my 3 week checkup, I made an appointment to have my right lens explanted and a new toric lens installed. Again, the surgery was uneventful, and the outcome was even better than with the left eye. It is now 3 weeks since I had the surgery in my right eye, and my far vision is nearly perfect. Of course, I need reading glasses for near work, but I do not have any of the ghosting, starburst, multiple images, and pain which plagued me after my first set of surgeries.

The difference in the quality of care I received is truly amazing. Dr. Tipperman has given me my vision back.

If you want to watch the kind of surgery I had with Dr. Tipperman, you can watch him do a similar surgery with a different patient. WARNING: NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH!

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Colloidal Silver Chemistry

Posted on May 8, 2010 by bill

Colloidal Silver is a popular home remedy for a host of ailments. It can be purchased at health food stores, and of course on the internet. It is expensive though considering a pennies worth of silver may cost $10.

For that reason, many people attempt to make it themselves through a simple process of electrolysis. The most common method is simply to put two silver wires into a glass of water and connect the wires to a couple of 9 volt batteries. There are two important variations in the process though, one very good, and one very bad.

So what do people actually make and call Colloidal Silver?

Well, that depends on the method they use. Here are the three main methods I hear of people using:

I) Distilled water + silver anode at room temperature.

In this method, free hydroxyl ions in the water initially react with the positive silver electrode to make silver hydroxide (AgOH). Silver hydroxide is unstable and rapidly decomposes to silver oxide Ag2O. If you remember your high school chemistry, the reaction forumula would be:

2AgOH –> Ag2O + H2O

Silver Oxide is slightly soluble in water, and after electrolyzing for a while you have an ionic silver solution, not colloidal silver. You can prove that silver ions exist at this point by adding a small amount of table salt as a test. The salt will form silver chloride which will precipitate out to form a cloudy liquid because the solubility of silver chloride is 5 times less than silver oxide.1

If the electrolysis is continued, the silver oxide will reach saturation, and then will start to precipitate as colloidal silver oxide. At this point, the solution will start to show the Tyndall effect. This is not strictly colloidal silver, although it does have anti-microbial properties according to the EPA2 Silver oxide is what gives CS its metallic taste which is another indication you have made silver oxide instead of colloidal silver.

This is what most people make and call colloidal silver.

II) High Temperature Colloidal Silver method

If the same method as above is performed while the water is close to boiling temperature, an additional reaction happens. Silver Oxide reduces to metallic silver when close to boiling in the absence of free oxygen3. This makes a straw colored colloidal silver product. The yellow color is caused by the plasmon effect of the extremely small silver particles.

The spontaneous reaction that reduces the silver oxide to silver is:
2Ag2O –> 4Ag + O2

The result is then a solution containing very little silver oxide (ionic silver) and a majority of metallic silver particles. This can also be tested by the addition of some salt. Unlike the CS made at room temperature, this CS does not turn cloudy with the addition of chloride ions showing that it contains few silver ions. This is true colloidal silver.

III) Distilled water + salt + silver anode.

Some people add a little table salt to jump start the electrolysis process. This method produces silver chloride, which has very low solubility and thus produces a cloudy solution. Silver chloride is very photosensitive, and is used in the production of photographic paper. When ingested, silver chloride ions travel into the skin, and are photo reduced by sunlight to metallic silver which then becomes trapped in the skin and cannot be removed. This causes the skin discoloration called Argyria as the amount of silver trapped in the skin increases over time. Ingesting silver chloride is definitely not a good idea.

IV) Distilled water + sodium hydroxide + silver anode + corn syrup

This is just one of the chemistries that makes superior metallic colloidal silver. The sodium hydroxide and corn syrup work together as a reducing agent to transform the silver ions to silver metal. What is left behind is a miniscule amount of sodium and sugar plus the colloidal silver itself. Sodium hydroxide is a widely used food additive (Its what makes the skin on pretzels).

Which method is better?

Definitely not method III, with salt. Ingesting silver chloride is simply asking for trouble in my opinion.

Method I, the most common way of making CS would seem to be safe however it probably does not remain silver oxide when ingested. The stomach is a chloride rich environment which will convert silver oxide to silver chloride as soon as it is swallowed. Do people take enough silver oxide to be a problem? I don’t know. Perhaps silver chloride is not readily absorbed by the body, but then why is that the people who developed argyria use salt to make their CS? Maybe its simply the dosage.

Method II gets rid of a lot of the ionic silver content, but there will be some residual ionic silver remaining. This is definitely better than method I though.

Method IV is my personal preference, as I know the true metallic CS will not react with stomach acid to make silver chloride, and it has an excellent shelf life, even when exposed to light. I have a sample over 2 years old in a clear glass bottle exposed to light every day, and it has not yet degraded. Using a food based reducing agent insures that all ionic content is removed, and the small amount of sodium involved is less than found in 3 or 4 french fries.

There is some controversy over which kind of colloidal silver is the better antibacterial agent. Some research papers show that ionic silver is 4 times better at killing bacteria but 25 times more toxic to human fibroblast cells. It is pretty clear though that ionic silver poses the greatest risk of turning the skin blue (argyria).

For a detailed look at how to make Colloidal Silver, see my Colloidal Silver page.

—————————————–

1) Solubility of silver species
Silver Oxide 0.00250 g/100 ml (20C)
Silver Chloride 0.00052 g/100 ml (20C)

2) US EPA Registration Review Schedule: Antimicrobial Pesticides of October, 4, 2006

3) I first discovered this when attempting to make CS using one submerged silver electrode, and one silver electrode suspended 1/8th inch above the water. I then applied 4000 volts from a transformer to create a plasma arc from the suspended electrode to the water surface. This created a clear CS (as tested by the salt method). I noticed that after a time, a yellow to brown layer would form at the top of the solution as it heated up from the plasma arc. As the arc continued to heat the solution, the brown layer would grow further down from the top. I did not know why until recently when I found reference to the decomposition of silver oxide to pure silver at boiling temperature in the absence of oxygen.


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Morality, God, and Creation.

Posted on February 19, 2010 by bill

Someone once asked me: “What can I do, what can we do to prove to a higher being, that we as a lot are worth saving”

Here was my answer:

For the moment, lets assume there is a higher being (which I will expound upon later in the post). This being (God) set life in motion, and gave us one master command we are to follow.

The number one master command we were given as physical beings is to Survive. It is so important, that it wasn’t written on some stone tablet in front of a burning bush; it is written in our genetic codes, and is the same for all living things.

The second master command is to protect our family; and the third is to multiply. The higher being also gave us intelligence to see that these three commandments can sometimes conflict, and we are meant to use that intelligence to guide us in applying rules 2 and 3. Rule number 1 always applies; it is the MASTER rule.

I believe that all morality is based on survival. The famous 10 commandments for example, if followed, all promote survival of all parties involved, as does the ‘golden rule’.

There are concentric rings of survival; visualize the rings of an archery target. They are (listed in natural strength to an individual):

* Survival of Self (Bullseye)
* Survival of Family
* Survival of Tribe*
* Survival of Nation State
* Survival of Race

If a person takes action to survive personally, we do not think there is anything special about such action. It is simply the normal thing one does, and is expected. However, if an individual sacrifices himself for the benefit of family or a family member, we generally consider that to be an action of a superior morality. Likewise, if an individual sacrifices himself for the benefit of his tribe (taking one for the team so to speak) we are even more surprised, and consider that person to be more of a hero, right?

Following along those lines, wouldn’t a person who sacrificed himself to save an entire race be of the highest morality of all? In my view he would be. (Think Jesus) That hasn’t happened often, has it? Most people do not care one whit what happens to some poor peasant in a foreign country because they are not part of the tribe. When Sally Struthers tries to get you to donate to a starving child in Ethiopia, she does so by convincing you to adopt that child into your tribe.

Any action which creates friction, tension, ill will, or harm to another is immoral to the degree that it lessens someone’s likelihood of survival. Stealing for example is a good way to get yourself killed, not to mention other transgressions such as lusting after your neighbors wife. However, defending oneself when threatened is not immoral, it is simply following the first master command. To not do so would be the immoral thing. The absolute highest immorality would be to willingly die for no reason. Perhaps this is why there is a taboo about suicide.

A common theme I encounter is that we are all part of the One, and there is no separation. Therefore any action which endangers one of us, endangers us all.

But, how is that true?

Earlier, I posited a supreme being. Well, that supreme being is US.

In the beginning, there was no time, no space, no matter. But, there could have been consciousness, because consciousness is non-local, and does not depend upon matter per se, according to the views of some physicists and psychologists. So, I offer my view of creation:

A long period of NO-TIME passed and a consciousness arose. There may have been more than one, it doesn’t matter to us. We cannot know how or why, but the fact that we are indeed here shows that something happened. Consciousness then is in fact the Prima Materia from which everything else springs.

After another long period of NO-TIME, this consciousness became insane, like a person placed in a sensory deprivation chamber for a long period of time. It splintered into several pieces, creating separate distinct consciousness units; schizophrenia. These are the biblical, Cherubim, Seraphim, and Orphanim. Eventually, this layer or level of split consciousness suffered the same fate, creating a new level containing the Thrones, Dominions, and Powers. These then split into the Principalites, Archangels, and Angels. Yes, these designations are probably wrong, but the process is correct, Many religions seems to have a similar view of the levels of creations though.

Each time the god consciousness split, the quantum of consciousness of the new level was less than the previous. IE: it was less potent. We are the product of this fractal splitting, each of us being a tiny piece of god-consciousness ourselves. We are in fact simply a piece of god-consciousness, a tiny alter-ego of a magnificent case of multiple personality disorder.

There is a parallel to this schizophrenia in our everyday lives, it is called government. That is why the same government can condemn smoking while at the same time dole out subsidies to tobacco farmers. I’m sure you can think of a lot of similar examples. As below, so above.

What is matter then? Matter is an illusion, it is simply condensed consciousness. It can only exist as long as we think it so.
What is time? Time is also an illusion, it is the distance between two thoughts. Time stands still when you are unconscious, but passes quickly when you are fully engaged in the moment.

Do you see how the idea of fallen angels arises then? We are the fallen angels, and we are in fact God. We are collectively the Supreme Being. We just have a hard time seeing it, and being schizophrenic, we are largely ineffective most of the time.

Our long term purpose is clear though. We as individuals, as consciousness units, want to reunify with the level above us, to essentially heal a schizophrenic God. This would be what we call Ascension. In the long run, nothing else really matters.

It has been proven now that our own brains are holographic in nature. Our memories, thoughts, and feelings are not stored in specific places in our brains, but distributed throughout, and any piece of our brain contains all the data we store. Our brains are non-local computing devices. The entire universe is likewise holographic, because it is simply a manifestation of non-local consciousness. As below, so above. Because of this, it is possible to know everything about anything, past, present, and future. True most of us don’t have this ability, mainly because we believe we don’t, but none the less, the possibility exists.

So, God is indeed all-knowing, because collectively we are, and we are God. God is also all-powerful because collectively we are. We just don’t know who and what we really are because that would spoil our work.

When we are in spirit, we can see creation clearly, and we know what and who we are. But when we come into flesh, we do so for the purpose of learning, and we set up problems for ourselves to solve. This requires forgetting our true selves.

Creation in the spirit world is instant. We think it, desire it, and it is so. But that presents a problem for us, as it is impossible to discern cause from effect in the spirit world. To fix that situation, we invented the material world to play in. In the material, creation is slowed down so that we can separate cause and effect and learn from our actions. (Karma). When we come into the flesh, we voluntarily agreed to the veil of forgetfulness, choosing to not remember that we are fallen angels so that our time in matter would have serious meaning while we are here. Think of material life as a movie theater, where you suspend normal belief while you watch the movie so that you can more fully enter in the experience. We have suspended normal belief as we entered the physical world. Dying is simply leaving the theater when the movie is over, and in so doing, regaining ‘normal’ belief again.

Religions teach us that we are separate from God, and that we have to plead for his forgiveness. That, in my opinion, is the greatest lie ever told, and it has been told as part of the plan to keep us in ignorance while we are in the physical as well as to empower the priesthood. But the time for that has now passed. Its time to realize who you really are, and to take on the responsibility you have to help with the Ascension. What that means is personal to you. I cannot tell you, just as you cannot tell me my role. Each of us does have a role to play though, or we would not have volunteered to be here in the physical.

————
* By Tribe, I mean a close group of associates, not a small village of people living in teepees. While that was true at one time, our tribes are now our circle of friends, our work associates, our neighborhood. Most of us belong to several tribes, some having more importance than others.

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Cataracts, Lens Implants, and Disappointments

Posted on February 16, 2010 by bill

Last year, I began having trouble seeing well at night. This was especially troublesome when driving. I would see a lot of glare, and multiple images, especially of headlights and taillights. I knew this was caused by worsening cataracts, and my Optometrist recommended that I have the cataracts removed. He recommended an eye surgeon in Wilkes-Barre to do the surgery.

My initial visit with the surgeon confirmed that I did indeed have cataracts as the source of my trouble, and he recommended that I get multi-focal implants. He told me that with these implants, I would be able to see well at distance, intermediate, and reading distances. His recommendation was to put a Technis lens in my left eye, and a ReZoom in the right (at an additional cost of $2400 per eye).

According to the surgeon, I should expect to have good vision with some halos around bright lights and some glare with these lens. He also told me that he could not correct my astigmatism with the implants, so I would either have to wear single vision glasses, or have Lasik surgery later to correct the astigmatism. He said the cataract surgery and lens implantation was quick and painless.

I arrived at the surgery center early in the morning, and the nurses started putting drops in my eye almost as soon as I got there. I think there were over 10 different drugs they were putting in my right eye. They also started an IV drip containing mannitol. When it was time for the surgery, an anesthetist administered IV Versed, a drug which induces amnesia so you don’t remember too much.

During the surgery, I was awake, and remember the event even with the Versed. I was instructed to look at 3 lights which I assume was in his microscope. I felt no pain when he made the incision, and when my lens was removed. I know when the lens was removed because the lights I was looking at quickly went out of focus, and all I could see was light. Shortly after that, I did feel pain. I think this happened when he injected the implant lens and positioned it in my eye. The implant is rolled up like a taco and inserted through a syringe like device.

The entire procedure only took a couple of minutes, and they wheeled me out of the operating room. A few more minutes to remove my IV, and I was on my way to breakfast. As soon as the operation was over, I had some vision in my eye. Since my glasses no longer worked and I still had the astigmatism, nothing was clear though.

My wife drove me the 30 mile trip back home, and I rested the remainder of the day. I had some strange visual experiences in that eye the rest of the day, probably because of the meds or irritation. For about an hour, it looked like there was a mound of worms crawling around in the upper right quadrant of my visual field. After that effect dissipated, my eye became foggy, like looking through a smoke filled room. This lasted a couple hours also.

The day after surgery, I removed the right lens from my eyeglasses so I could see well with my left (unoperated) eye. I had an appointment scheduled with the surgeons partner who provided post surgery follow up. He evaluated my incision, and the interior of my eye. The interior pressure had spiked dangerously, so he prescribed a glaucoma drug called Combigan to lower the pressure.

I had several more followup visits with the surgeons partner, and he said I was healing well. However, my vision was not improving, and if anything, was getting worse. However, the doctor assured me that it was too soon to evaluate, and it would get better.

Two weeks after the first surgery, I had the left eye done, with a Technis lens.

The first problem I noticed was a starburst pattern around anything bright. This looked like a Fourth of July firework exploding when I looked at a bright point source of light. For example, when viewing an ordinary LED light from a distance of 20 feet, I see the LED, with 16 more just like it arranged in a pattern around it. This was certainly not what I expected and not what I would call a halo.

The second major problem I noticed is that solid objects appear to have transparent edges when viewed from distances greater than arms length. This is really annoying when looking a people’s faces, and TV images, and cannot in any way be considered normal vision. The only time this effect goes away is in very bright light, like broad daylight outdoors.

The third major problem is additional images of objects. For instance when looking at a newsprint sized letter, I see an additional letter slightly to the left, another above, and 2 more diagonally down to the right. These images are not as strong, but nevertheless are quite noticeable.

It was obvious that the starburst pattern was an aberration of the ReZoom lens itself, because of its inherent symmetry. However the other ghost images had no symmetry, and I believe are not really caused by the implants themselves unless the implants are defective. I believe they are caused by wrinkles in my cornea resulting from the surgical incisions causing my eyes to focus the same image at multiple points on my retinas.

After the second eye was implanted, I had no eyeglasses to improve my poor vision. Neither of my doctors offered to make me new glasses, so I took it upon myself to make my vision as good as possible under the circumstances. By carefully measuring the starburst aberration in my right eye, I was able to mathematically compute a prescription to correct the astigmatism in my right eye. Knowing that the astigmatism had always been the same for both eyes, I ordered glasses to my homemade prescription from an internet company. When the glasses came, they were indeed a huge improvement, and they corrected my right eye for distance in bright light very well. The left eye remained fuzzy at all distances. BUT, I still could not read with them even though my astigmatism was corrected. (If a circle looks eggshaped or a square appears to be a rectangle, it indicates uncorrected astigmatism. If it appears to be the right shape the astigmatism is corrected.)

At this point, I was very concerned that all was not going well, and I feared that I would never see correctly again. So I scheduled an appointment with the surgeon, and I took all my notes and drawings of what I actually see along so he would have as much information as possible. It had been 6 weeks since my right eye surgery, and I still had pain, and poor vision.

The doctor sent several technicians to measure my eyes and visual acuity. He totally was uninterested in the drawings and notes I had made, and told me I needed to have Lasik to correct my astigmatism. He also told me I needed bifocals. I reminded him that the entire purpose of paying $4800 extra was to have good vision without bifocals, whereupon he completely ignored that fact. Instead, he blamed me for not trying hard enough to see. I told him the starbursts were much worse than the cataracts, and that I did not feel comfortable driving at night. I told him that people should not have transparent edges. Instead of helping me, he got visibly irritated and left me sitting in the exam room for over 3 hours. In the end, he prescribed more eye drops and told me to give it more time. How long? Months to a year.

The one thing that I can see clearly is that this doctor and I are not going to have a good relationship. The ability of these multifocal implants to provide good vision at any distance was greatly exaggerated, and the downside of the aberrations was minimized.

I asked the doctor if they could be removed and single vision implants be installed. He really discouraged that idea and implied that the trauma could cause permanently damage my retinas because they could swell up from the released prostaglandins.

So here I am, unable to read a newspaper, with no hope of restoring good vision, and no faith in my eye surgeon. I will report again if there is any change.

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Someone always has to rain on the parade.

Posted on December 19, 2009 by bill

A couple of days ago, I went to my favorite diner for lunch. I am a regular there, and always sit in the same place, and almost always I am waited on by the same waitresses. I know these people well, and I go to the diner as much to see them as I do to eat.

Every Christmas season, I give my regular waitresses a little extra bonus for putting up with me all year. They are always most appreciative, and I enjoy sharing what I have with them. It was no different this year.

Exept, this year, one of the waitresses who never waits on me saw me give them the extra cash which I carefully folded up and stuffed into a napkin. (real classy huh?). This particular waitress immediately hollars out: “Where’s mine”. Of course, I didn’t have anything for her, and really saw no reason too, but you know; that made me feel bad. That little incident completely broke my Christmas spirit for a while.

May your Christmas be perfect, and not marred by the Grinch.

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My Solar Electric System

Posted on November 15, 2009 by bill

My wife and I decided that it would be a good idea to add a solar electric system to our home in light of the imminent electric price deregulation in our state. We had already greatly reduced our electric usage by installing compact fluorescent bulbs in our home, and already have plans to switch our electric water heater to a gas fired tankless unit.

Normally, the cost of a solar electric system is such that it is not a good investment. However, the recent economic stimulus packages have made it marginally affordable. The federal government rebates 30% of the cost of the system via the federal income tax and my state, PA, rebates $2.25 per watt of power capacity. These two incentives pay for more than half the cost of the system.

Several months ago, when I started looking for systems, I quickly discovered that there were very few companies which had turnkey solar solutions. The few companies I did call didn’t even bother to return my phone calls. Eventually though I did find a contractor who had a system similar to what I was looking for.

There are two basic kinds of solar electric installations. The first is called a ‘grid-tied’ system where the home is still powered mainly from the electric utility, but the solar system generates power and feeds it back (essentially sells it) to the power company. As the solar panels produce power, the generated electricity first feeds the home, and if any is left over, it feeds the power lines, and turns the electric meter backwards. This reduces a homes electric bill.

The second kind of solar electric system is called an ‘off grid’ system where the home is not connected to any electric utility company. The solar system itself produces all of the electric power used by the home. Usually, the solar panels are used to charge a bank of lead-acid batteries during daylight hours, and the batteries run the home when the panels are not producing power.

Either system requires a device called an ‘inverter’ which takes the direct current (DC) produced by the solar panels and converts it into 220volt alternating current (AC) which is the same as supplied by the utility company.

I had hoped to find a system which combined both systems, because the power fails frequently at our location. However, it seems that it is not possible to have a grid tied system with battery backup because of the possibility of feeding back power into dead lines while workmen try to repair the power grid. That would make a really bad day for some unsuspecting lineman.

So, we opted for the grid-tie system which needs no batteries, but doesn’t work at all if the power grid is out. In that case, we are back to using a generator until the utility company fixes the problem.

The system we installed is a 4 kilowatt Brilliance system made by General Electric. It was very easy to install, taking only one day to get up and running. The hardest part was mounting the panels on the roof. Our system has 20 panels, each producing 200 watts in bright sun. The panels are wired in series as two banks of 10 panels each. Each bank of panels produces about 250 volts in bright sunlight. The inverter converts this 250 volt DC power into 220 volt AC power. This AC power is simply fed into our breaker box through an ordinary two pole circuit breaker.

Of course, nothing is ever simple, and there is usually some unexpected problem. In this case, it was with the system specifications. We bought a 4kw system, fully expecting that it would be capable of producing 4000 watts of power in full sun. However, after it was installed, I found out that the inverter supplied with the system had a maximum capacity of 3,500 watts of output power. It seems GE rates the input power to the inverter instead of the output power, and never did the contractor’s salesman disclose that important point. To rectify that, we upgraded the inverter to 4800 watts, and now have the option of adding more panels in the future.

For the first two months of operation (September and October), the system produced about 22 Kilowatt Hours of electric energy per day. This exceeded our expectations, but I expect the output to drop off substantially during the winter months.

I will provide an update on the system when I have more data to report.

Posted in Energy | Comments Off on My Solar Electric System

An Alternate Health Plan Idea – More Freedom, Less bureaucracy

Posted on August 31, 2009 by bill

I must say I am not too pleased with the ill conceived health care the Congress is trying to force upon America, so I thought I would see if I could create a better plan.

My objections to the current proposals are:

  • Too much potential power to the government to make life and death decisions
  • Health care may be arbitrarily rationed.
  • Competition is stifled
  • Taxpayers are expected to pay for illegal alien’s health care
  • Excessive bureaucracy is created.

    • As I have written before, insurance itself is one of the reasons health care is so expensive. See my previous post for an explanation. On the other hand, a single payer system would help lower the costs.

    Here is what I would propose:

    Every Citizen would be issued a health account, and initially funded or charged with a one-time credit based on age at inception. For the sake of argument, lets say that people over 60 would be funded with $200,000, and newborns with $300,000 credit to their health accounts.

    This account would be used to pay all health related expenses for the patient, with no restrictions on exactly what treatments would be paid for. This would allow the patient to choose whatever treatments the patient thought best. If the patient believed a heart bypass operation served him best, it would be paid from his account. If he believed that the alternative chelation therapy best served his health, it also would be paid from his account. This would allow the ultimate in health freedom.

    All drug costs could be paid from this account if the patient chose to do so. A small copay could be instituted to make the plan less expensive for the country.

    The catch is of course; once the account was depleted, there would be no more taxpayer funded health care for that individual. If the patient wanted additional coverage, he would have to purchase it privately and would be encouraged to do so. This may sound bad, but the fact is, most private insurance policies carry a maximum lifetime benefits restriction; so this is no different than a private plan.

    In addition, health care providers would be required to advise each patient up front of the cost of their services and of any recommended treatments, including any optional treatments available. This would allow the patient to make better choices, knowing that their own health care account was a limited resource. This alone would greatly reduce the cost of health care, as presently patients have no idea what a procedure or test is going to cost, and if they have insurance they generally do not care as long as the insurance company is paying.

    The cost of child-birth would be born by the mother’s and father’s accounts, and the cost of post-natal child care by the child’s own account. In the case of a missing or unknown father, the cost would be born solely by the mother’s account.

    In the case of an illegal (no health ID card), any emergency health care costs would be billed to the illegal’s government, and the illegal could be deported to his country of origin.

    All cosmetic surgeries would not be covered except in the case of a disfiguring accident. Lets face it, people should not expect the taxpayer to pay for their nose job.

    All pre-existing conditions would of course be covered.

    The government’s basic duties in this system would be:

  • Perform the appropriate accounting
  • Pay the health providers for treatments rendered.
  • Audit providers to prevent fraud.
  • Provide patients with semi-annual statements of their account
  • Provide patients additional statements on demand for a small fee
  • Provide patients with information regarding alternative cost effective treatments

    • Under this system, there would be no need for Medicare/Medicaid, so that system would be disbanded. There would be no need for VA health care, so that system could be disbanded also. There would be no need for prescription drug plans. All state plans could likewise be disbanded if states chose to do so as they would be unnecessary. The elimination of all of these redundant systems would provide a large cost savings to the taxpayer.

    How much would this cost? All health care is expensive, and over the course of a lifetime can reach astounding amounts. A bypass operation can cost $100,000, and chemotherapy can easily exceed that several times over. However, let us assume that on average, a person will only use 1/4 of their allotment. For newborns, this would mean $75,000 would have to be paid into their account over their lifetime. Assuming a working life of 45 years, that would require $1700 per year in taxes for each person. Since not everyone actually works and pays taxes, that means the amount of tax burden an actual worker would have to pay would be much higher, probably twice that amount.

    I believe this would still be cheaper than our current system, and would provide incentives to not waste medical resources. It would bring down hospital costs because under the current system, the cost of non-payers using hospital services is born by those that do pay. Since the amount of free-loaders would be greatly reduced, hospital costs would come down. However, there is no such thing a free lunch. Somebody must pay, and that means the taxpayer through some sort of payroll tax perhaps similar to the Social Security scheme.

    This system would be easily augmented by:

  • Allowing people to add credits to their own accounts at a discount, extending the plan to include health savings account features. IE: buy a dollars worth of health care for 80 cents.
  • Allowing employers to add to their employees health accounts as an employee benefit.
  • Reimbursing military or civil service personnel’s accounts for service related injuries. This would be fair to those facing above average dangers working in hazardous jobs.
  • Allowing a person to transfer a portion of his own benefits to his/her spouse.

    • This system would not:

  • Arbitrarily decide who gets what treatments.
  • Prohibit private insurance.
  • Discriminate against any class of citizen.
  • Require 1000 pages of legalese to describe.
  • Stifle medical research.
  • Reduce services available.
  • Prohibit private payment for medical service.
  • Restrict patients to any specific providers.
  • Make any medical decisions for the patients.
  • Stifle competition between technologies or providers

    • Would this work? I think so, and I would happily live under such a system.

    Posted in Alternate Health, Economy | Comments Off on An Alternate Health Plan Idea – More Freedom, Less bureaucracy