Paracas had one 90-watt solar panel, and Paradox had 6 with 540 watts. Our condo has 14 panels with 3120 watts, and yesterday I put up an array on a friends roof of 14 panels with 3710 watts. The difference is this last system came in less than a dollar a watt and that first 90 watt panel on my boat cost over $360 or $4 a watt. Just four years ago a 3 to 5 KW solar system cost almost $5 a watt after healthy rebates. These systems we’re installing this summer and fall are costing about a $1 a watt installed. Not only has the cost dropped to 25% from four years ago, but the production per square foot has increased 26%. It’s a good time to think about a solar system, especially if you can do one like our solar barn raising program here in Durango.

The only other “barn raising” projects I’ve been involved in was a barn up at the St Paul on Red Mountain Pass and hand-moving a garage with 25 other apple-cider-squeezers in Grand Junction. These solar projects are much more modest and installing the panels only takes a couple hours with 4-6 people depending on the pitch and height of the roof. (This is after you get the railings installed, which should be with a smaller crew.) The final stage can be done with a large family, including the observers and support crew.

These local projects were stimulated after a local non-profit sponsored a Solarize effort which reached it’s goal of over 100 installations done last Spring.  Local contractors participated in a fixed-price program and successfully increased our county’s renewable energy number by at least 25%.  The barn raising version has followed with homeowners collectively working to install their own, friends’ and neighbor’s solar arrays on roofs, garages and free-standing installations.  I’ve helped on 4 of the 36 so far of these, and have a pretty good understanding of what’s involved and would highly recommend taking on the venture.

One of the features of the newer systems is that you can use micro-inverters right under each panel and follow the solar output hourly and online from anywhere in the world.  Or track what you’ve been gaining over the lifetime of the installation.

Check it out. And it’s the right thing to do.

Not sure if any of you have found your iPad with a dead black screen, even when it’s fully charged, but it’s possible to restore it with a simple maneuver.

A friend had taken his iPad 2 into the local Mac Store, when the startup screen wouldn’t light up, and learned that he’d need a screen replacement at about 50% of the cost of a new iPad, because the screen was irretrievably damaged.

I’d accepted the verdict when making a house call on another tech issue, and asked if he’d been backing it up regularly. As often is the case, many people never plug their iPad into a computer which instantly invokes iTunes starting up and as a part of any Sync routine backs up the iPad contents.  No backup in several years, so all the photos, contacts and apps they’d accumulated were lost.  If they’d used iCloud for a cloud based duplication many of those items would have been available on their home iMac, but they hadn’t turned that on either.

The screen had a very dim glow in a darkened room so I tried to plug it in the computer and do a backup but it needed the passcode which was impossible to enter on the dark black glass.  I took it home after trying numerous work arounds but none could circumvent the passcode requirement.

At home on the internet I found many sites suggesting all the things I’d already tired, but one forum had a bizarre post saying to place the fully charged and recently turned on iPad in your lap, glass down, and slap the back and check to see if it would fire up.  If it didn’t respond, try again, slapping much harder.

Imagine my surprise when I turned it over after the second harder slap, and produced a deep black screen with the plea to stopped hitting it, and wait 2 minutes.

After the 2 minute “time-out” from punishment. it lit up with the most recent iOS splash screen, and accepted my “swipe to start” flick as well as the passcode we’d been trying to enter blind.

Hope this helps someone. Evidently the iPad took a “jarring” and something got loose.  Now it’s reconnected and working perfectly.

It’s hard to follow with exciting and interesting anecdotes and photos after four weeks in Switzerland, especially when some of this first week back has been adjusting to the time change – waking at 3 AM for example.

Never-the-less we managed to catch up on a mound of mail, supping with old friends and helping others with projects. Oh and a couple of hikes.

Kurt and Carol pulled off hosting all the Durango regulars plus McKenney at their country abode. The occasion was to greet their grandchild and daughter who was down from Bozeman for an Art Show and family visit.  Carol and Laurel have been fortunate to have had multiple “showings” at a variety of Art Shows this summer, Carol with her jewelry and Laurel with her paintings.

Fun catching up with folks who used to get together more regularly in the past. But a doctorate and grandchildren has kept Monte and Misha busy lately, Cathy and John are often traveling, building and bringing in the hay, Carol and Kurt crafting and touring the Art Show circuit, not to forget their new and continuing family obligations.  And the most special of all to visit Durango for this occasion was ever-busy and three-pass-distant Tom McKenney.  Of course you all know why we’re never available.  Good times, great folks and wonderful food.

Kurt has, to his credit, helped to promote solar energy in the Four Corners thru his personal experience on his own home, followed by Monte and Misha’s installation and ours as well.  He took it much further promoting (thru Four Core) a Solarize Your Home program which got 100 additional homes solarized last year.  This year he’s taken the project to Pagosa where they’ve set a goal of 50 more homes.

An off-shoot of Kurt’s major high profile solarization effort has been a group of DIY solar enthusiasts who are “barn raising” solar installations for their friends, neighbors and folks keen on doing it themselves at almost a quarter of the price some of us early adopters paid.  I’ve been responsible for introducing at least four of these DIY projects and this week got on several roofs installing railing and in one case felling 40′ trees.

There was still time to shake-out the legs as it’s still quite colorful in our high country.  This trail is just outside Durango not far from Monte and Misha’s house.  Just 3,000′ above it.