• Solar versus propane • Congrats to Hawai‘i Children’s Theater • Online fee ridiculous • Mahalo to Wilcox • Slow drivers Solar versus propane Mahalo to Maureen Gregg for her comments on solar water heating vs. tankless gas. Her comments,
• Solar versus propane •
Congrats to Hawai‘i Children’s Theater •
Online fee ridiculous • Mahalo to Wilcox
• Slow drivers
Solar versus propane
Mahalo to Maureen Gregg for her comments on solar water heating vs. tankless gas.
Her comments, however, were based on nationwide conditions.
As a licensed plumbing and solar contractor on Kaua‘i with over thirty years experience, and a certified tankless gas water heater installer for seven, I want to point out key distinctions between conditions on the Mainland vs. Hawai‘i. The Mainland has less sun, lower fuel costs, and residents must install more complicated solar water heaters due to freezing temperatures and the corrosive quality of their potable water.
On Kaua‘i, the gas we use in tankless water heaters is petroleum which is shipped in from the Mainland or foreign countries and subsequently converted to propane. For that reason, Hawai‘i’s propane is not a renewable resource and is subject to the same volatile prices and shortages and fossil-fuel pollution as imported oil.
Hawai‘i’s potable water quality is ideal for the most efficient form of solar water heating. We have so much sun here that systems work on even less-than-desirable collector orientations. We don’t have freezing concerns. Thus, we can choose to have 98 percent of our water heating needs met with a solar hot water system and save our precious imported oil for other needs for which solar is not an option.
Solar water heating with tankless gas backup is allowed under the proposed amendments, but why pay upwards of $2000 to install a device that will be used 2 or 3 times a year?
From a lifecycle cost basis, solar water heating is the easiest and cheapest way to move our island toward energy sustainability, but we still have work to do. We need architects to site and design homes that utilize their solar potential. We need to help residents finance solar hot water systems. We need to challenge installers to size systems properly. We should be a model for the world to see what’s possible.
I have customers from Ha‘ena to Waimea who have paid for their systems in two to four years and saved thousands of dollars for more than 15 years after their initial investments.
I don’t think any tankless water heater used anywhere in the world can out- produce the investment of a solar hot water system on Kaua‘i.
Del Alexander, Wailua Homesteads
Congrats to Hawai‘i Children’s Theater
Yesterday afternoon I had the pleasure of attending one of the most wonderful theater productions I have ever seen.
I’ve attended theater in London, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles as well as other cities. I do not believe I have ever attended a production as wonderful as our own Hawai‘i Children’s Theater production of Willy Wonka.
The acting and singing was good and the children were amazing, especially the Oompa Loompas and the five gold ticket holders.
Ed Eaton did a really artistic job on everything. The stage sets were very creative, and looked good enough to eat which one of the characters was doing. The costumes were amazing (Poppy Shell is a genius). The direction was fabulous and there were no slow spots in the whole production. The producer, Debra Blachawiak, did her usual “out of the ball park” job.
I am amazed that we have such talent on our small island. Congratulations to Hawai‘i Children’s Theater.
Carol Ann Davis, Po‘ipu
Online fee ridiculous
The other day I went online to pay for my sewer bill. During the process of getting ready to complete my payment, I noticed that there was a $4.63 fee to use the online service.
My mama didn’t raise no fool. My bill total is $95.72 and with the fee it would have been a grand total of a $100.35. So of course I told myself, ”heck with this I’m sending my payment in by US Postal Services. It cost only 44 cents to mail versus $4.63, the price of a gallon of gas.
My question is: “Why charge a fee to go online to pay on sewer account?”
We already pay a flat rate of $95.72.
Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr., this extra charge to make an online payment doesn’t make sense. It’s ridiculous, especially in this time of economic crisis.
Who’s for saving money? Say, “aye!”
Howard Tolbe, ‘Ele‘ele
Mahalo to Wilcox
Many mahalos to Wilcox Memorial Hospital and staff where I had an emergency appendectomy on Nov. 10.
My husband and I were treated with much aloha from the admitting room to post surgical care.
We are visiting from San Diego, Calif. for two months. I feel very lucky to have had the surgery here; it could not have been a better experience.
Maureen Roeber, San Diego, Calif.
Slow drivers
Mr. Goddard’s letter Nov. 12 put me on the subject of the people I frequently observe driving on our roads who have no business behind the wheel.
They put our lives in danger every day by doing what Mr. Goddard mentioned along with “stopping their vehicles instead of merging,” driving on narrow roads at an unsafe, slow speed and stopping when approaching a bend in the road.
I won’t even bring up the Kapa‘a roundabout.
I hope to see the KPD stop unlicensed drivers in the future instead of good drivers doing 50 mph in the silly 40 mph zone.
Steve Mac Vitie, Kapa‘a
