The process of converting a house to renewable energy begins with:
1. Upgrading its passive solar features, then,
2. Tightening the envelope through adding insulation, upgrading windows, and so forth.
3. The next stage is adding solar hot water heating. Heating water accounts for a quarter to a third of energy usage in a home and using solar water heating can substantially cut the energy bill.
4. Then PV.
5. And then whatever is still needed.
Let's look at three options for adding solar water heating to our homes.

Folks sniff at DC. Well, yes, that DC too :=) I mean the other DC; the low-tech power of direct current.
Fair enough. Here's the story of the War of Currents: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_Currents
I'm a big fan of Low-tech Magazine (free online), produced out of Barcelona, Spain.

http://www.lowtechmagazine.com
This post is to promote Low-tech Magazine and to marvel at its editor's low-tech, DC-powered apartment office. More below.

We have the usual hi-tech weather guides. We have an electronic temperature sensor and I check the Wunderground (https://www.wunderground.com) 10-day forecast every day.
As always with hi-tech, it makes us dependent on them. We grow up "not needing" to know how to read the weather signs for ourselves. The neighbourhood squirrels are smarter than me about, well, a lot of things, weather being one of them :=)
I wanted to learn about weather myself and low-tech is the way to knowledge. More below

Climate change is drying out the planet's already dry areas. And agricorps have worked diligently to worsen the soil and destroy ecosystems for more profits. The climate news can be most depressing. April was another record-breaking month, the 7th in a row. Yikes. If you live in a drying area, you might be interested in permaculture's practical lessons for greening the desert. More below.

Bisbo's recent desert treatment spurred me to finally rouse myself from my typical lethargy.

Here's the Chateau's answer to extra water for the garden.

A few years back when Occupy was all the rage, the move your money campaign (https://ilsr.org/tag/move-your-money/) taught me to think about my personal values and how that interacted with my personal banking. I mean, banking sounds so neutral doesn't it? It seems like something we do outside of our daily living, where we make all of our moral decisions.
Then I realized that banking is a value-laden activity. Now it seems obvious, but before I was oblivious to this fact. I'd like to make the case for moving your money to a credit union, as our family has done. More below.

Heading into mid-May here in SE Ontario, we're starting to see the bugs come out. Including the $#@@$% Asian ladybug brought in by Quebec farmers for pest control. They quickly ate all the bugs, then all the native ladybugs, and now infest Quebec and SE Ontario, heading steadily west. The effing Asian ladybugs will probably meet the effing pine beetles chewing their way east from BC, somewhere in Saskatchewan. My money is on the ladybugs giving the pine beetle whatfor. Anyway, mosquitoes, don't get sidetracked, G!

Well, they'll arrive pretty soon too. I've collected a bunch of mosquito control ideas over the years and some may help you. All ideas free of charge with a money-back guarantee if'n they don't work. More below.