Well, Larry, I suppose my counterculture is showing -- using photovoltaics allows one to avoid burning hydrocarbons and thus trashing the planet more than it already is.  It's so easy for us, as we toodle down the road in our 4,000 pound love machines, to ignore the real damage we're inflicting on our Mother Earth.  15 minutes of idling is 15 minutes of idling, and some tangibly bad s*&t happens as a result.  PV is, at least, less damaging.

Your bleeding heart pal,

Greg Baskin
85 Westy "Fred"
Bluejean, Oregon

---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
>
>Date:    Wed, 1 Nov 2000 11:22:50 -0700
>From:    Larry Hamm <ldhamm@XMISSION.COM>
>Subject: Re: Re; Solar power your VW
>
>Terry Kay wrote:
>
>> Ben,
>> Why go to all the trouble inatalling a solar panal on the roof, just for
>> a vent, when a stainless steel solar powered vent is available?
>
>I'm curious why anyone would install a solar panel for anything? Put in an
>aux battery, and run the engine for 15 minutes or so every day, which will
>produce about as much juice as a panel would all day (here's where David
>jumps in with some hard figures).
>Maybe if you weren't going to drive the van for a few months, it would be OK
>for keeping the batteries up. Can anyone enlighten me?
>Larry
>