Hey now! house and shop here in Nova Scotia is solar pv, it just works. local old time foundry here built a solar fresnel lense and mirror rig, and did some casting in aluminum and bronze, "Lunenburg Foundry", there is a bit of non technical stuff on the web somewhere. "Nova Scotia Solar" puts out a manual for passive solar construction that works in Northern areas, and there are many others tinkering, and succeeding with passive and semi passive building. The main thing about solar is that once its up and running, there is no monthly bill, and if it's time to run outside and hang out with the critters, try and see things there way, it's no biggie.......bring...brrrrrring...."ya what?".... "um I thought I should call and say I'm feeling great.... ,so I wont be in today"