I have described the several components necessary to establish successful stand alone water harvesting. In my drive to emphasize the stand alone aspect, we have ignored the possibility of a making a plug in device to harvest water for growing a tree in the back yard.
This would hugely benefit the urban landscape in the South West and California were water is not available yet a large tree in every backyard would actually help reduce air conditioning needs. I would be surprised if it actually balanced out but at least part of the cost of supporting the tree may be offset.
More importantly, perfecting a plug in device will perfect that part of the technology for the day that solar power is cheap enough. And it is a technology that everybody has understood for 100 years, yet resists perfection. So the more development we can do now, the better.
Besides a homeowner in Palm Springs will and can pay $2,000 for a state of the art water machine that allows him to grow a large shade tree.
This would hugely benefit the urban landscape in the South West and California were water is not available yet a large tree in every backyard would actually help reduce air conditioning needs. I would be surprised if it actually balanced out but at least part of the cost of supporting the tree may be offset.
More importantly, perfecting a plug in device will perfect that part of the technology for the day that solar power is cheap enough. And it is a technology that everybody has understood for 100 years, yet resists perfection. So the more development we can do now, the better.
Besides a homeowner in Palm Springs will and can pay $2,000 for a state of the art water machine that allows him to grow a large shade tree.
