Simple Solar - Parts 4 through 8

From My Basic Solar Advice:

First, reduce your load. Insulate, caulk, seal everything you can. Weatherize everything up the wazoo, even going so far as to get a blower door test - pressurizing your house with a large fan installed in the front door and having a professional go around finding where all the air leaks are. Get the most efficient appliances (refrigerators tend to be the largest electrical load in the house) and lights that you can find and afford and install them. When you've become as efficient and energy-conserving as you can be, then start thinking about solar.

Then, and only then, go solar.

This is my solar backpack. It has three solar lighting systems on it which I use for my lights when riding my bicycle at night. I've been using it for four or five years now, hasn't failed me yet, and cost a little over $60 to put together. Dirty F*ck*ng Solar Hippie Backpack

Minimal solar lights and flashlights, solar is civil defense, and an affordable way to ease into the renewable future. After all, Solar Is Civil Defense

Solar and dynamo power for reliable sources of low voltage DC power: light, radio, cell phone, and anything that uses a battery. The combination of small scale solar and a hand cranked or foot pedaled dynamo provides a reliable source of low voltage DC electricity, day or night, by sunlight or muscle power. It is one method to bring useful amounts of electricity to the quarter of the world's population that does not now have access and a good idea to have on hand in the industrialized world in case of emergency and disaster.

Here's the summation of my 30 years of playing with sunlight and demonstrating simple solar devices for a couple hundred thousand of people throughout the Northeast. This short clip reviews all the devices and techniques I presented in the rest of this series.