Solar panels, dogs, and (unrelated) Vaclav Klaus addressing the Press Club
July 26th, 2011 at 02:03am
An email to 2UE’s Mike Jeffreys
Good morning Mike,
To answer the question about how solar panels work, the quick and simple version is that they convert light energy in to electrical energy. It is not based on heat or UV rays, although heat can affect the efficiency of the conversion.
That said, before solar panels which created electricity, there were solar panels which used the heat of the direct sunlight to heat water. In Braddon until recently, a nice elderly couple had the oldest solar hot water heater in Canberra. The solar panel was out in the front yard and water was pumped through it for heating. They eventually replaced it due to issues with the hot water tank which was based in the roof space.
A funny story about that couple. They live across the road from the editor of the Canberra Times. In the late 1990s the editor got a new dog which would regularly explore the suburb (it was a nice friendly, but large, dog…the name escapes me) and one of its favourite past-times was stealing the newspaper of the elderly couple and chewing it up.
Every time this happened, the elderly couple would ring the Canberra Times and request a new paper…The CT would usually say that they don’t replace papers chewed up by dogs, until they were informed that the editor’s dog had done the damage, and they would replace the paper with no further questions within the hour. Eventually it got to the point that the couple would merely need to ring the CT and a the people there would just assume that the dog had been at it again and promptly send a man around with a replacement paper.
Anyway, I’m looking forward to seeing the Czech President, Mr. Vaclav Klaus at the Press Club today. I believe it is being televised, but I’m eager enough to hear his views against the global warming nonsense and socialism that I’ve paid to be there.
Have a good day Mike.
Regards,
Samuel Gordon-Stewart
Canberra
(in the fortified bunker of work again)
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