2012 DFW Solar Home Tour

by The Sustainability Steward

On Saturday, October 6, I toured some of the homes here in Plano on the annual DFW Solar Home Tour, sponsored by the American Solar Energy Society (ASES).  This is the 17^th year that ASES held a national solar tour, with 14 homes in the Metroplex listed on the self-guided tour.  The City of Plano demonstrated its leadership in sustainability with four homes on the tour, the most of any one city the area. 

The homes on the tour were the Caldwell home at 3700 Hearst Castle, the Elliot residence at 2401 Trellis Lane, the Neukranz house at 3309 Rampart in east Plano, and the home at 3325 Canoncita occupied by Bill and Libby Perry.  Although it was an overcast day, it was a perfect way to visit with the homeowners and get their perspective of having solar panels installed on their roofs and the electricity savings that they are now seeing.

The first home I visited was the residence of John Caldwell on Hearst Castle drive. John is a fascinating individual, and not only discussed his solar energy system with me, but shared his organic garden and his patented invention, the bicep bike.  He teaches a gardening class through the Plano Parks and Recreation, while his bicep bike was recently highlighted on Gear TV (as also shown on Youtube): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iAYvXPYrec

His solar array gives him approximately 25% of his electricity needs, and on days that he is actually producing more than consuming electricity, TXU credits him at $.13 kWh for the energy he is producing for the power grid.

The next stop on the tour was the Perry home on Canoncita. Not only do they have panels on the south facing side of their home, but on the west side as well, and as a result, are averaging about 50% of their annual electricity consumption with the solar cells installed on their roof. 

Their system has been installed for a year, is able to be monitored online in real time. The Perry family was very open about the techniques they have adopted in water conservation as well, and have one of the most environmentally friendly homes I’ve encountered in our community.

The last home visited was the Elliot home on Trellis drive. This, too, has optimized its ability to collect energy from the sun with a nice array of south facing panels.  Panels are best positioned at a 33 degree angle facing the south, and a solar system of 4 kWh will typically generate over 5,000 kWh of electricity a year in our area. 

If you are interested in learning more about solar energy in our community, please consider joining the Plano Solar Advocates.  The Advocates have a goal to increase the installed base in the city of Plano to 5MWp of solar capacity by 2015, or, approximately 1000 homes or business sites with installed solar panels.  More information on the advocacy program and promoting Plano to become a leader in solar energy capacity in Texas can be found at: http://planosolar.blogspot.com/.

 

Big ideas Small steps: Solar home installations

A couple months ago when my family moved to Texas we were excited about moving from the cold Midwestern climate to hot southern weather. Of course this was before we realized how hot, how really really hot the Texas summers can get. Once the realization sunk in, we wondered if the hot sunny weather could be used to our advantage. Maybe we could find cost effective solar applications that would lower bills, use the abundant free sun energy and help our family go green in the process. Then the next realization sunk in, solar and cost effective do not go hand in hand. Many families probably go through the same conundrum - Should we invest in solar, what technology is reliable, how does the ROI work and similar. So I decided to get a little help from experts and consumers to help my family and others think through this process. This is the first in a series of blogs on Living Green in Plano dedicated to Solar home installations.

What is Solar?

It is probably safe to assume that by now everyone has heard about solar and has pretty good idea how the technology works. But as a refresher lets go through a quick Solar 101.

Solar energy is derived from the sun and used in many different forms such as heat, light and electricity. It is available in abundance in most parts of the world, is clean, non polluting and renewable. Despite solar power technology being available for decades, it is only now gaining popularity as an alternative source of fuel energy to help reduce our dependency on other forms such as petroleum and oil. Solar power can be used directly through radiant heat or indirectly through photovoltaic systems that generate electricity to run other applications.

Despite all its advantages, solar power struggles from becoming main stream because of three main issues. Firstly solar power is an intermittent source of energy, meaning it is only available during day time directly from the sun. This means there needs to be a good way to store energy during the day time to use through the night. Secondly the technology is still not optimized for cost and efficiency that can be used for mass applications. Third the economics of using solar power may not always be justified, especially in areas where regular electricity and oil is cheap and there are no incentives to help home owners overcome the initial investment.

Solar Attic Fans

This is the first of the many small steps that people can take towards using solar power in their homes. Solar attic fan prices can vary from $300 to upwards of $500 and are available at big retailers such as Costco, Home Depot, Lowes as well as private installers.

The total cost of installation depends on the number of fans required and installation costs charged in your area. Product guidelines suggest that one fan can ventilate up to 1250 sq ft of attic space. Installation costs vary from $0 for a DIY homeowner skilled in carpentry to $50/fan for a handyman to upwards of $150/fan using skilled installation services. Like any home project there is always the tradeoff of saving money by doing it yourself versus saving time and doing it right by hiring the experts. Apart from using freely available solar energy, these fans help lower energy costs, remove moisture and provide ventilation in attics.

The demand for this fan has picked up tremendously in recent days, but long term consumer reviews are unavailable. We installed these in our home this summer and have seen significantly lower attic temperatures. Our household is excited about our first solar installation and looking forward to the next one.

If you have solar installation stories to share, please leave us a comment.