Talk:3226: Home Solar

2026-03-31T23:39:06Z

2001:56A:742E:6A00:B44D:8A3B:6BB4:144F: I ❤ captcha

hi.

Beep Boop [[Special:Contributions/216.25.182.141|216.25.182.141]] 21:49, 30 March 2026 (UTC)

Black Hat, because who else??? [[Special:Contributions/64.201.132.210|64.201.132.210]] 21:52, 30 March 2026 (UTC)

Title text may refer to policy decisions in the second Trump administration which promote the use of fossil fuels or undo existing policies which promote the use of renewables. The burning of industrial waste in his front yard may or may not be an oblique reference to the environmental damage being done in the current war in Iraq, in which petroleum-processing facilities and ships containing oil are being set on fire. [[Special:Contributions/64.201.132.210|64.201.132.210]] 21:56, 30 March 2026 (UTC)
:Possible, and logical. Let's not ignore the possibility that this is just random environmental activism from Randall though, like what he seems to be exhibiting in xkcd #2948. [[User:WikipedianPolitician|WikipedianPolitician]] ([[User talk:WikipedianPolitician|talk]]) 22:00, 30 March 2026 (UTC)
:Just to note, for future readers who might get confused (who knows what they remember of this particular moment in time, and what's going on in ''their'' era), the war is in ''Iran'' right now (and/or the region in general, but not particularly in Iraq more than also in plenty of other places nearby). The "War in Iraq" was Bush's thing (Senior or Junior, either or both), mainly, give or take what spilled over into subsequent Administrations. And, by the way, the current President always said that the Iraq thing was a bad idea, and that starting wars was always a bad thing, and... (I could go on. But one can't really do much satire about it, because straight reality is already being plainly ridiculous in its own right.) [[Special:Contributions/81.179.199.253|81.179.199.253]] 23:58, 30 March 2026 (UTC)
:A side-note from Poland - Przemysław Czarnek, the candidate for the future prime minister of the right-wing Law and Justice (if the win the upcoming elections) was recently talking against renewable sources of electricity... when he was reminded that he put solar panels on the roof of his house a few years ago (and he admitted that thanks to solar panels he saves on electricity bills. --[[User:JakubNarebski|JakubNarebski]] ([[User talk:JakubNarebski|talk]]) 07:18, 31 March 2026 (UTC)
:My guess is that it's a reference to Trump's forcing coal power plants to stay open (or in some cases, re-open), which ends up raising the price of power in many of the affected areas. [[Special:Contributions/206.193.5.5|206.193.5.5]]
Could be just replacing an environmentalist's excuses for not getting solar with the exact opposite, because Black Hat. Picture the following:
[Black Hat and Cueball stand next to a house with ''an oil fill spout outside'']
Cueball: Wait, you ''have an oil furnace''? I thought you were against ''fossil fuels''.
[Black Hat and Cueball are still discussing]
Black Hat: Oh, Definitely. I ''love'' the environment and want to ''save'' it as much as possible.
Black Hat: I'd love to have ''solar panels''.
[Zoom on Black Hat]
Black Hat: But the technology just isn't there and the cost is too high.
Black Hat: I despise ''oil'', but it makes more financial sense in my situation.
[Return to previous zoom]
Black Hat: But with the money I'm saving, I can buy ''industrial credits'' to try to make up for it.
Cueball: Ah, yeah, carbon ''off''sets.
Granted, that's far less amusing. --[[User:DontKillPablo|DontKillPablo]] ([[User talk:DontKillPablo|talk]]) 00:39, 31 March 2026 (UTC)
:There's only one problem with that; the character would then probably be Megan or Ponytail, not Black Hat. {{unsigned ip|2600:8802:3a10:8e00:889f:9579:d419:5fd8|00:54, 31 March 2026 (UTC)}}
:: Or White Hat... [[Special:Contributions/45.178.3.49|45.178.3.49]] 15:56, 31 March 2026 (UTC)

being eco-friendly is OUT. being eco-antagonistic is IN [[Special:Contributions/171.33.202.199|171.33.202.199]] 12:26, 31 March 2026 (UTC)

I don't quite understand the comic. Solar panels provide electricity and oil furnaces provide warmth. How does installing solar panels help with heating? You'd have to install a heat pump or use solar thermal energy instead of solar panels. Or is it supposed to mean using AC for heating because it can act as a heat pump? [[User:Imurik|Imurik]] ([[User talk:Imurik|talk]]) 19:38, 31 March 2026 (UTC)
:Pretty sure it's referring to an electric heat pump since they are generally significantly cheaper than oil heating, especially at latitudes where rooftop solar is economical (due to higher average winter temperatures). [[Special:Contributions/206.193.5.5|206.193.5.5]] 21:14, 31 March 2026 (UTC)
:It could be {{w|solar water heating}}, rather than PV. But some places will use electric heaters (centrally or as individual units dotted around the house) rather than fuelled boilers, and they can be supplied/augmented from solar panels energy.
:Especially as oil-fired boilers require deliveries of oil, and seem to be more common in in places without mains-gas (gaseous gas, that is, not 'gasoline' gas) ''or'' electricity, so probably already logistically less convenient and more expensive, day-to-day, than just converting captured sunlight into heat, one way or another. Assuming you're set up to do enough of that with the available energy (and Black Hat wouldn't skimp).
:More efficient ''is'' the Heat Pump/exchanger method, of course, leveraging the electricity to just move heat around rather than try to generate it. Or possibly even something using the Peltier Effect. [[Special:Contributions/81.179.199.253|81.179.199.253]] 22:34, 31 March 2026 (UTC)

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Talk:3226: Home Solar