I was fortunate to be asked to serve up a small dose of Building Science to a group of eager permaculturists this sunny afternoon at the Permaculture Design Course. It was lead and put on by two dedicated professionals Jillian Hovey and Jane Hayes. I shared the floor with Architect Ingrid Cryns of Soma Earth today. It was held in two buildings in Toronto’s High Park; the Children’s teaching Kitchen- an awesome structure with clerestory window, straw bale and timber frames of oak and cherry – and the High Park Office Training Centre.
I was slack jawed when one participant shared his revolutionary idea on solving the old “Grid tie” vs “Battery storage” dilemma. I’d always though that it was really one or the other given the feed in tariff or mircoFIT, what I didn’t know is that you can have both! Apparently when Nortel went belly up he bought a whack of deep cycle batteries and now charges his batteries with his solar panels and sell the power back to the utility only during peak hours. A brilliant idea. Perhaps if all grid tied PV systems stored and supplied only on peak, it might benefit society more by not having to generate on peak. You learn something everyday!
All the best to the participants taking the course, it was a pleasure to meet you and very encouraging to see more people who are committed to efficiency!
