Solar Hot Water Heater

We recently made the switch from our dinosaur electric hot water heater to our spiffy new modern solar hot water heater. Can I tell you how smart I felt by doing so?

It all started back in May when Leon and I discovered a leak coming through our fairly newly installed IKEA light fixture over the kitchen sink. As new home owners that don't know anything about home repairs, we went into a state of panic. Our one saving grace was that our "miracle leak" occurred right over the kitchen sink. You really can't ask for a better spot to have a leak. We felt blessed.

We consulted with a handful of contractors, roofers and handymen. The first thing we did was pull the entire seal off our roof to determine what kind of crack we were dealing with. Well....let me tell you, one doesn't realize one has a leak until it's rainy season in the tropics. One also doesn't realize how bad the leak is until one has no seal on the roof.

Once the seal was removed and we discovered enough cracks to break my mothers back. Our miracle leak turned into multiple miracle leaks. We got another one directly over the bathroom shower, and another one over our kitchen cabinet that just so happened to have a chip and dip platter resting directly beneath it. I was finally able to prove my point to Leon that the platter would someday be used. Chips it hasn't held, water is has.

We finally got a break in the weather and were able to seal the roof with Crossco 8500, a product that seems to be working ok and is available at Home Depot. The following day we had PR Solar Products come out to install the solar hot water heater. We purchased an 80 gallon tank with three panels. Basically we have enough hot water for our entire neighborhood to take showers, do laundry, wash dishes and do whatever else one does with hot water. It took less than 2 hours for the entire system to be installed and we had scalding hot water immediately.

The best part about it is that we get a 50% tax credit on the total amount paid ($2000). If we had installed it last year we would have received a 75% tax credit. Now our electric bill should be reduced significantly. I'm actually looking forward to receiving our next electric bill so I can see the reduction. Not only will we be saving money but other added values of the solar hot water heater are reduced CO2 emissions, added value to our home, free hot water and we can feel good about being environmentally friendly.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle! Composting is Cool!

Leon and I are doing our best to live by the motto reduce, reuse, recycle. We've been composting for well over a year now at R House in Rincon, Pueto Rico and have seen major improvements in our home garden by using the compost material for our organic herb garden and yard plants. We've also seen a dramatic decrease in the amount of trash that goes into our trash barrels.

Picking out the right composter was important to us.  We evaluated how we would use the composter and how often we would add to it.  Since I love to cook, and cook often, we realized our composter would be added to daily.  For that reason we chose the bin style as opposed to the tumbling composter.  The problem with the tumbling composter is if you use it daily, you're constantly adding fresh produce to it, which makes it more difficult to sift out the dark crumbly matter when gardening.  Living in a warm environment like Puerto Rico helps speed up the decomposition, but one can also compost while living in cold regions; it just may take a bit longer.

We chose the Earthsaver Compost Bin.  I found it online for about $180, but after searching the web a little longer, I found it on ebay for only $89 with shipping! The Earthsaver Compost Bin was easy to assemble, has dual sliding doors and a large locking lid to keep the rodents out. We added a mesh wire to the bottom of the composter and tacked it to the sides so that the rodents wouldn't be able to dig under the composter to get at the food scraps. It seems to have worked since we've never had any problems with rodents.  We do have about a million cockroaches living in the bin.  I was a bit worried about it so I did some research and learned that roaches are actually helping breakdown the food scraps added to the bin.

The best combo for your composter is layering greens and browns.  We add fruit, veggies, coffee grounds, cardboard toilet paper rolls, paper towel rolls, eggshells (no yolks!) and lint from the dryer as well as dry dead plants, leaves and grass.  Never add bones, meat, dairy, diseased plants, oil or chemically treated yard waste as this can lead to bad odors, rodents and flies.  Steve Tamar, my composting guru, told me that mango leaves are highly acidic so I try not to add that type of leaf to the mix.  Also, chemically treated yard waste can contain pesticides that are harmful to the composting organisms that help break down the matter.  I've also been told that horse manure is excellent to add and Pintos R Us happily agreed to donate all the manure I want for my bin.  I just haven't been able to bring myself to scoop the poop for the bin!