Cooperative Living January 2017 - 7

HistoryMystery
The theme for this year's
column is " Famous People
Born in Virginia. " You are
invited to submit your guess as
to the identity of the person
pictured in each issue and
submit it in writing, along with
your name, address and phone
number, via mail to History
Mystery, c/o Cooperative Living,
P.O. Box 2340, Glen Allen, VA
23058-2340 or guess online at
www.co-opliving.com under " Contests. " The deadline for this
month's entries is Jan. 20, 2017. Correct entries will be placed in a
drawing and the winner announced in the March-April 2017
issue. The winner will receive a check for $25. 
 DO YOU KNOW WHO THIS IS?
The October 2016 History Mystery subject was
Sam Snead (1912-2002). Born near Hot Springs, he
began caddying at the Homestead Resort when
only 7. He worked there until turning professional
in 1934 and remained one of the world's top golfers
for nearly four decades. Snead won a record 82
PGA Tour events, including seven majors, but never
won the U.S. Open (although he was a runner-up
four times). Admired for having a " perfect swing, "
he received a PGA Tour Lifetime Achievement
Award and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. In
2004, the Greenbrier Resort opened a course named after him
that was ranked one of the best new private golf courses in
America. Reader Jerry Campbell of Hot Springs was our $25
winner. Congratulations, Jerry!
HISTORY AND HAUNTINGS PIQUES
READER'S INTEREST
My family and I enjoy reading
Cooperative Living magazine each issue,
and we especially appreciate well-written
articles that recommend places to visit. In
the October issue of the magazine, the
cover story, " History and Hauntings, " is a
prime example.
The writer piqued our interest; we'll visit
these ghostly venues in the near future.
Thank you for producing a quality
magazine that helps us enjoy living
in Virginia.
- Mark A. Smith, Midlothian
SERENA WILLIAMS ONE OF OUR
ALL-TIME GREATS
Thanks for your work and for fun
features like the History Mystery. It
was great to see Arthur Ashe featured, but
in describing his accomplishments as " the
only African-American to win the singles
title at three major tournaments, " you
inadvertently erased the accomplishments
of one of the greatest athletes of our time,
Serena Williams!
- Kirsten Beachy, Dayton
EXTERNALITIES SHOULD ALSO
BE FACTORED IN
The November-December Mailbag
included a letter titled " Cost-Benefit Facts
Can Interfere With the 'Green Fantasy.' "
The author opined, " Most people who
strongly support green energy ... are not
really concerned about the cost or the
efficiency [but] more by their desire to see
us move away from fossil fuels ... . " The
author argued that there should be costbenefit
considerations, agreeing with an
October Mailbag letter that asked costbenefit
questions pertaining primarily to
construction of wind farms, solar farms
and the like.
But also often missing from these
discussions is the cost of what economics
calls " externalities. " This term describes
when a polluter avoids the costs of
cleanup by passing either the impacts of
pollution or the cleanup costs along to
www.co-opliving.com
someone else. The classic case is the factory
that dumps its effluent into a river, ruining
the livelihoods of fishermen downstream.
While not often quantified, the
" green fantasy " that is targeted for not
considering costs and benefits might well
come out ahead of fossil fuels if
externalities were factored in. To the point,
the costs of global climate change are just
beginning to be accounted for.
- Jim Thomson, Clifton
HOME SOLAR POWER:
ONE HOME'S REAL DATA
We moved into our new home
with solar power in Frederick County,
Virginia, in September 2015. I collected
daily data on power production and
use from Oct. 1, 2015, through Sept. 30,
2016, our first year in our solar-power
home; we wanted to know - " Is home
solar worth the initial cost? "
Our solar-power data for our first
12 months follows:
Our solar system produced 7,956 kWh
(over 500 kWh more than guaranteed) -
this saved us over $1,000.
Our home used 7,963 kWh (this
includes about 450 kWh required to dry
the basement after a freak water spill).
We charged our electric vehicle at
home; this required about 1,650 kWh to
keep the battery pack charged - this
continued on pg. 6
January 2017 | Cooperative Living | 5
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Cooperative Living January 2017

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