Friday, August 05, 2005

Skylights: The Flourescent Conspiracy: "Today if you read the press you find our hope for solar energy is placed on new photovoltaic panels, not on old-fashioned skylights, but if you take a typical photovoltaic panel and pull the expensive silicon crystals away from the front glass and use the plain glass in a skylight, it will admit not twice as much, but at least ten times a much light as could be produced by the photovoltaic cells powering electric lights--and most of us prefer the quality of natural light. Is there a force weaning us from mother nature's free and natural sun so we will grow up to purchase an electric substitute? If you discuss the matter of lighting with a store manager while 100 kilowatts of electricity glow around him, you suspect that your protests about electricity and desire for the sun suggest the tiresome whining of a child being weaned."

No comments: