Boston Home Improvement Blog

Here comes the sun: solar devices and shops in Massachusetts

Every so often, when I fly, I read those catalogs in the seat-back from cover to cover. You know the catalogs. They have the $15,000 battery-powered Rolls Royce for kids, the $800 ionic foot bath, and the $2,500 mini refrigerator complete with Patriots logo and a robot that pours a vat of Gatorade on you when the team wins.

Sometimes, though, those catalogs have handy devices, such as a cell phone battery charger that runs from a small solar cell, or solar-powered landscaping lights, or even solar-powered fans that attach to a hat for cooling.

In our household, we keep a hand-crank emergency radio/flashlight/alarm that runs entirely on the enthusiasm of a single six-year-old boy. May is Home Improvement Month in the United States, and energy costs are skyrocketing, so a short tour through solar devices is on my mind.

The Central New England Solar Store in Auburn (just outside of Worcester) offers a great selection of these catalog items, for less than SkyMall prices. Solar-powered radios, flashlights, and lanterns are ideal for camping, but also act as great back-ups during emergencies.

You can step up a bit and get solar attic fans from the Alternative Energy Store in Hudson, MA. These solar-powered fans, at about $340, help to reduce cooling costs in the summer, as attics can heat up to over 120 degrees. Need a generator? Try a solar one, for around $300. Take a look at their free webinar on preparing for alternative energy as well.

Both stores are easily accessible from Boston and carry everything from batteries to sun ovens. Yes, sun ovens. They're not just for Girl Scout camping anymore.

Think a solar-powered oven that weighs 21 lbs. and is the size of a briefcase is a bit much? How about a solar-powered trash compactor?

The City of Boston has jumped on the solar bandwagon, with solar-powered trash compactors:

They need emptying only once or twice a day, not the 15 or more sanitation worker visits required by some downtown trash cans. They don't spill. They smell less. And, they hold some 150 gallons of trash, about five times more than a standard city receptacle.

Developed by a Jamaica Plain inventor, they are powered by photoelectric panels, which supply power to motor-driven compactors inside. Workers extract neat, 40-pound trash bricks instead of trying to manhandle the messy contents of an overflowing can.

So you can charge your cell phone, light your way through at night, cool your home, have a back-up generator, cook dinner, and have a backup generators, all with solar devices.

Too bad there isn't a solar device to guarantee a Super Bowl win. :)

Posted by Melanie Zoltan
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