solar and wind power is affordable with a little effort

Save money, go greener and have the satisfaction of doing it yourself!

There are many ways to save money, whether there’s an economic downturn or not.

Often these mean we need to change our thinking, to get away from the modern ways of buying everything we need. There’s a tremendous amount of satisfaction from making things, especially things that – we’re told – can only be made by the experts. Browse the web and you’ll find lots of examples of this: people powering their cars with water, building homes from bags of earth or metal shipping containers, using things designed for one purpose for a completely different one.

In our desire to live a greener, more economical life we’re also trying to do as much as possible ourselves here in Greece. Many Greeks are set in their traditional ways, especially when it comes to building anything, so we’re regularly facing the question: ‘Why do you want to do that?’ Explanations and justifications for our ideas often fail to get across, and we’re increasingly falling back on one of two answers: ‘Because we do’ or ‘Why shouldn’t we do it?’

As we now have an accessible piece of land to build on, we’re starting to make plans of how to use it efficiently. We hope to get mains water, but mains electric is a non-starter, partly based on cost, but also because we have massive supplies of sun and wind available, so we’d be fools not to take advantage of them.

Browsing the web to find out about solar energy systems and wind turbines can be off-putting. There is so much information out there, and so many companies looking for your business, usually at a cost that will take many years to recover. And there’s no guarantee that these companies offer the best route: we have friends who failed to site their solar panels in the best place, because they weren’t given all the information they needed. They were, however, persuaded to buy an expensive freezer that was designed to be powered by a solar energy system, only later realizing that it was no more efficient to run than a normal one that cost much less.

If, like me, you never studied physics and have no idea about volts, amps, watts and all those other obscure terms, you may feel daunted at the possibility of building your own solar energy system or wind turbine. There are lots of guides out there offering to help, but how do you know whether the one you buy will give you help at the level you need?

Solar energy systems and wind turbines need to be built properly, and for many of us that means we need a simple step-by-step guide with lots of pictures. As far as the technology is concerned we need straightforward explanations of those things we need to understand, without confusing us with the complexities of those things we don’t.

We’ve found a product that looks the business. It has clear instructions, lots of pictures, DVDs so you can see someone actually going through the process, plus a lot of supporting information. Check out this video for a preview of what I mean.

Then if you get the bug, like we have, why not give it a go?

read comments (0)

When you really need to know something, or communicate something important forget email or other written communications. Try your best to do it in person, ideally face to face.

Why?

Written communication of any sort can be frustratingly ineffective and have extremely negative results.

Say things face to face and you'll avoid misunderstandings

You send an email or write a letter asking questions of someone. They choose which – if any – of your questions to reply to. The answers aren’t what you expected. Maybe they didn’t tell you everything you wanted, or needed to know. Maybe they chose to ignore some of your questions completely. Maybe the answer they gave didn’t make sense to you – they interpreted the question in a different way than you wanted them to. Whichever applies, you’re not much further forward than when you started.

So you try again. Depending on whether it’s a formal or informal communication, to a friend or stranger, you start again. Maybe you ask further questions based on their previous answers, or maybe you have to rephrase your question or simply ask it again. And again, you may not get the reply you’re hoping for. Your questions may still be ignored or misinterpreted.

The problem is that you don’t know what’s happening. You don’t know if someone is deliberately avoiding answering your questions or whether you haven’t stated them clearly enough. And if you keep to written communication there’s a chance you’ll never find out, even if you go so far as to ask: ‘Why aren’t you answering my questions??’ In fact this strategy is likely to lead result in even less effective communications.

If you’re dealing with a business, chances are you’ll stop trying and look elsewhere for another company to work with. If you’ve got a complaint, failure to communicate effectively at this first level can easily escalate a simple matter into a more serious situation.

But if you can actually see the person you need information from it’s so much easier.

If your question isn’t answered or you don’t get enough information from the answer you can pursue it straight away. You can ask more questions or say things differently if you need to. And it’s easier to tell when someone is trying to avoid answering you – and deal with it. You’ve got the opportunity to ask them direct if there is a reason for their avoidance. And, in person, you can make sure you do this in a way that won’t upset or annoy them.

In person you have the benefit of body language and other non-verbal signs to better help you understand the conversation. Facial expressions, changes in posture or breathing: all these things contribute to the conversation, enriching it or signaling difficulties or concerns.

If you can’t see the person but you can speak to them, you don’t have as many advantages but you’re still far better placed than if you’re writing. Someone on the other end of a telephone line being asked a direct question has less chance to avoid it without being challenged. You need to proceed carefully to find out the reasons for avoidance, but you’re much more likely to succeed than if your contact is totally impersonal.

Sometimes it’s uncomfortable to be in that face to face situation, especially if your communication is likely to upset the other person. Ending a relationship, telling someone they’ve been unsuccessful at interview, sacking someone or making them redundant are all situations most people would prefer to avoid. Dealing with others’ emotions makes many people uncomfortable, even tongue-tied.

Avoiding things by falling back on written communications doesn’t really make it better. You either agonize over the content of the ‘letter’ or you make it brief, even abrupt, leaving out things you might want to say. But chances are you still say them – inside your head, acting out scenarios. You still go through the emotions whether you’re face to face or not. And you don’t know how the recipient will deal with your missive. You can’t soften the blow in any way, however hard you try with your words.

Uncomfortable as it might feel at the time, having the courage to take a face to face approach whenever you can will actually give you the more comfortable outcome with far less chance for lingering misunderstanding.

read comments (0)