THE RICH MAN'S HEATING SYSTEM

The "inexpensive" is relative. Not counting labor and other expenses, the mere materials come to $2,040 (March 1975 dollars), and under very favorable assumptions (do-it-yourselfer who now burns oil in a well-insulated 1500 squ. ft. house and saves 40% of his fuel bill), it will take some 10 years before the system is paid for in saved fuel costs.

But again, even in un-drenched Arizona or Florida, money is not the only problem. Does the prospective user have 500 square feet of collecting area exposed to the sun at a favorable angle? Will his roof withstand the additional load of 2.62 lb/ft2? Does he have space for a 9 x 5 ft warm-water storage tank plus concrete foundations? Is he willing to tackle corrosion inhibitors, leaks, electrical control systems and other items for which service cannot merely be looked up in the yellow pages?

But above all, is he willing to face all that trouble plus the financial investment when he can get his energy, massproduced and centrally distributed, for a nickel a kWh from his electric utility and fuel supplier? It is, after all, not prohibitively difficult or expensive to make one's own soap, shoes, or fabric for clothes; yet most people now prefer to leave it to the expert mass-producers.

True, people used to take their washing to the laundry, and now prefer to have their own washing machines at home; because it is more convenient and the price no longer out of reach. But home-converted energy will never be more convenient, and probably never cheaper, than that supplied by the expert mass-producers.

Which leads us to large-scale, centrally converted solar power.