I am really intrigued by using sand for energy storage - what I don't get (not my field) is given a typical 2000sf house, located in the colder part of the country as an example, how much heat could be stored for how long? i.e. is it even feasible to use solar panels to power resistance heaters all spring/summer/fall, to save up enough heat to keep a house warm for the entire winter? if so, how many panels would you need and how big a sand battery would it take.

I am not planning on doing this, but explaining it on a scale that I can relate to would be helpful, because I know, for example, that said house can store a winter's worth of heat in a 1000 gallon oil tank, or small woodshed big enough for 6 cords of wood.

So they should wait until after the food supply becomes contaminated, then study the problem for a few years and only then pass a law to regulate it?

Yea, but at least you get to pay thru the nose for it. </sarc>

thats a good point - if you are over a certain age, getting back to a FT career is going to be hard - ageism is real in this industry.

I am someone who has 'done my own thing' for more than 35 years at this point - i.e. direct contracting with my own clients, occasionally working on some 'side' project I hope I could sell, and even took a FT position here and there when the right opportunity came along.

My feeling is it has not hurt my career at all, and more likely made it better - having your own company, with your own clients and working on lots of things you learn lots of skills you likely won't learn grinding it out for mega-corp year after year.

Other big bonus is, on my resume - there are no gaps - I was either on someone else's payroll (for me less than 5 years of my 35 years of work) or doing my own thing - I never had a recruiter or hiring manager question 'gaps' - on paper I was 100% employed at all times, which is easy to say if you have your own little corp - even if you were technically idle at times.

IMO if you have some money to get thru thru for a while (i.e. you won't be homeless if you don't get a check every two weeks), this is the perfect economy for doing your own thing.