By Ed McMonagle:
Moving from Philadelphia to NH in 1974 was supposed to be the beginning of my move into an environmentally conscience world. My degree in Chemistry and my years as a HS teacher had led me to investigate the new world of back to the land and environmentally living that had cropped up in the late sixties. I knew Vermont was the place to be, but I got accepted into the UNH graduate school to study the Chemistry of soils. What a better way to begin my life as a back to the land farmer, study the place where it was all happening. Well I did graduate but I also had to make a living, and since I did not want to leave NH, which I had come to love, and I did not want to work in the Chemical industry, I did what I had done before, returned to teaching. So, 34 years later, with a house in the woods (at least I did that right - but it was a conventional house), two kids out of college with degrees in Engineering and on their own, we finally decided to go solar.
It just sort of happened, I met with Jim Gamble, who had just opened the Solar Store in Concord and I signed up for a free site survey. That was the spring of 2009. Jim came out to the house, climbed on the roof, took some readings with his solar pathfinder and sent me a report and quotes for both a PV system and a Hot water system. More money than I had and also the report showed that all the trees on the west side of the property were blocking much of the winter sun. So the summer came and went, winter came and went and spring was back again before we decided to bite the bullet. I had done a lot of research and decided that the hot water system was the more efficient system and was the way to start our journey to the sun. I called Jim and told him it was a go. I also called a tree guy and we took down about 50 trees. Most he took away, especially the large pines and some he left for me to turn into firewood. Jim and his crew of two, set up my evacuated tube hot water system in a few days and we were off and running.
That was June, 2010. I immediately fell in love with the power of the sun. Even on not so sunny days, the temp of the glycol was above 130 degrees all summer. My wife got a bit tired of my announcement that we all need to take a nice hot shower/bath because the sun was shinning, and the water in the 85 gal tank had reached 140 degrees. I even opened the circuit breaker on the HW heater to see what it did. A month later I remembered it was off. All through the next winter, I was amazed that even though the outside temp was close to zero, when the sun was shinning, the glycol was flowing at a very comfortable temperature.
When I heard that Jim had closed the Solar Store, I was very upset that he would leave me without any support for my system. I contacted the Solar Store in Dover and they said they would work with me if I needed any maintenance. I was still not happy. Come December 2011, NH Lung Assn. announced a program to retire old dirty woodstoves. Well, my woodstove was over 30 years old and although it had served us well, it was time to retire it. So, off to the Stove Barn to buy a new stove with help from NH Lung Assn. A week or so later two fellows show up to take away my old stove and install my new one. They did a great job, and as we were talking, one of the installers happened to mention that he was buying Jim Gambelʼs inventory and starting his own solar store. On the spur of the moment, I told him if he was looking for someone to invest in his company and help out, to let me know, because I was interested.
Moving from Philadelphia to NH in 1974 was supposed to be the beginning of my move into an environmentally conscience world. My degree in Chemistry and my years as a HS teacher had led me to investigate the new world of back to the land and environmentally living that had cropped up in the late sixties. I knew Vermont was the place to be, but I got accepted into the UNH graduate school to study the Chemistry of soils. What a better way to begin my life as a back to the land farmer, study the place where it was all happening. Well I did graduate but I also had to make a living, and since I did not want to leave NH, which I had come to love, and I did not want to work in the Chemical industry, I did what I had done before, returned to teaching. So, 34 years later, with a house in the woods (at least I did that right - but it was a conventional house), two kids out of college with degrees in Engineering and on their own, we finally decided to go solar.
It just sort of happened, I met with Jim Gamble, who had just opened the Solar Store in Concord and I signed up for a free site survey. That was the spring of 2009. Jim came out to the house, climbed on the roof, took some readings with his solar pathfinder and sent me a report and quotes for both a PV system and a Hot water system. More money than I had and also the report showed that all the trees on the west side of the property were blocking much of the winter sun. So the summer came and went, winter came and went and spring was back again before we decided to bite the bullet. I had done a lot of research and decided that the hot water system was the more efficient system and was the way to start our journey to the sun. I called Jim and told him it was a go. I also called a tree guy and we took down about 50 trees. Most he took away, especially the large pines and some he left for me to turn into firewood. Jim and his crew of two, set up my evacuated tube hot water system in a few days and we were off and running.
That was June, 2010. I immediately fell in love with the power of the sun. Even on not so sunny days, the temp of the glycol was above 130 degrees all summer. My wife got a bit tired of my announcement that we all need to take a nice hot shower/bath because the sun was shinning, and the water in the 85 gal tank had reached 140 degrees. I even opened the circuit breaker on the HW heater to see what it did. A month later I remembered it was off. All through the next winter, I was amazed that even though the outside temp was close to zero, when the sun was shinning, the glycol was flowing at a very comfortable temperature.
When I heard that Jim had closed the Solar Store, I was very upset that he would leave me without any support for my system. I contacted the Solar Store in Dover and they said they would work with me if I needed any maintenance. I was still not happy. Come December 2011, NH Lung Assn. announced a program to retire old dirty woodstoves. Well, my woodstove was over 30 years old and although it had served us well, it was time to retire it. So, off to the Stove Barn to buy a new stove with help from NH Lung Assn. A week or so later two fellows show up to take away my old stove and install my new one. They did a great job, and as we were talking, one of the installers happened to mention that he was buying Jim Gambelʼs inventory and starting his own solar store. On the spur of the moment, I told him if he was looking for someone to invest in his company and help out, to let me know, because I was interested.
Am I an old hippie who has finally got his wish. You Bet.
TO BE CONTINUED...
