On Thursday Ben Mancini from EV Solar Products in Chino Valley came in to talk to us and on Friday afternoon we went to his store to see everything in person. Ben has been in the solar industry since 1980 which allowed him to give a great perspective on how the industry and attitudes have changed over time and the various factors that have influenced it. He was an amazing resource to learn from- he designed his own off-grid passive solar house and is currently working on converting a car to electric. He explained various methods of solar water heating, space heating, and solar energy from low tech to high tech.
The overarching themes he expressed were that solar energy isn't the same as getting energy from fossil fuels and it, therefore, shouldn't be treated as such; it isn't successful or the most efficient method to try to convert existing system to solar or to keep with the standard form of "appliances" to produce energy from the sun and instead needs to take its own form. He also expressed that using very "advanced" technologies that take lots of energy and exotic material to produce that run on solar power often seem to defeat the purpose of using the sun as an energy source - instead we should be thinking how to do more with less and definitely think of passive solar options before active. Thanks Ben!