Net Positive -One Year and 13.1 MWh

Our photovoltaic system has now been in place and operational for one full year and as you can see below, it generated a whopping 13.1 MWhrs of electricity!

As shown in the illustration, this amount of power is equivalent to the energy consumed by 435 typical homes for a single day or the amount of carbon stored by 233 trees.  Even if you could care less about the issues around energy security or climate change, those numbers have to make you think.

To add to the story, we only consumed 7.80 MWhrs (see below) of electricity, giving us a delta of 5.3 MWhrs of positive electricity production that we sent back to the grid.  Actually it probably went to my neighbor's house and his 8,000 Christmas light. I won't bore you with the calculation, but that 5.3 MWhrs was more than enough to offset the energy we consumed in propane to heat our home. So it's official, in my own mind anyway, that our home is net positive.

Our PowerHouse Dynamics eMonitor System

The 7.8 MWhrs we consumed was also over 1.2MWhrs less than we consumed during the same period in 2010. At an average price of $0.11/KWhr, that saved us $132 in electricity. Add that to the 5.3 MWhrs of electricity that we sold back to the power company and it adds up to $715 in my pocket that otherwise wouldn't have been there, and this is before the sale of my renewable energy credits, which at the price I locked in at, adds a few thousand dollars more to the business case per year.

My whole reason for writing this blog is that there is a tremendous business case to be made by investing in renewable energy before you factor in the societal costs associated with other forms of energy.  I agree that the case is often complicated to understand, but that's an excuse! The fact of the matter is that I do not worry about the price of oil rising because people that do not like us block a canal where a large supply of the world's energy originates from.  I'm in control of my own costs and there really isn't a reason why the rest of this country couldn't be in the same boat... pun intended!

I only consider myself a wealthy person in the sense that I am blessed to have a loving family, good friends, and a job that I love.  If my family can do what we did just by adding some panels to our roof and without needing to make any sacrifices what-so-ever, so can others!

This isn't the kind of story you see on the news or read in so-called mainstream publications, which is really a shame.  Energy has been, at least on the surface, so cheap in this country for so long that we lost the motivation to innovate our way out of a problem we couldn't see.  Truth is that we've paid dearly for it and will continue to do so unless we collectively make smarter choices.

Anyway, I'll step down from my soapbox and leave you with something to read (other than this blog), if you want to learn more about alternatives to the same old story.  Check out the book Reinventing Fire.  It lays out the picture of where we could be if we start taking energy security seriously.

My Solar Adventure - Part 2 - Selecting an Installer

In Part 1 of this series I discussed some of the incentives that are available to homeowners interested in installing a photovoltaic (PV) system.  As I mentioned, understanding fully what incentives are available, what you'll have to pay out of pocket, and how long it will take your system to pay itself off is often confusing and time consuming.  That is unless you have a good installer to help you navigate the process.

Once I completed my evaluation of incentives I turned my focus to understanding exactly what the payback would be if I installed a system.  I've had linked on this blog since the beginning a clean and renewable technology blog that I read regularly and still do today.  That blog is cleantechnica.com  and at the time I was doing my solar research, CleanTechnica was sponsored, and I believe, partially owned by another organization named One Block Off the Grid (1BOG). 1BOG's mission is, as their name suggests, to help communities go solar by organizing group purchasing discounts with installers.  Anyone interested can go to 1BOG's site and sign up to see if there is a group purchasing plan available in their area.  I would suggest checking out 1BOG's site and signing up as you might be surprised at the number of people around you that have already signed up.  There is no obligation to buy anything or to even participate if there is an active program in your area, so it's a good place to test the waters.

Unfortunately for me, there was not yet an active 1BOG program in place in my area, but the site referred me to some installers near me as a place to start, so I checked out the websites of each of the installers that 1BOG recommended. This ended up being a great next step because a few of the installers had some really good tools on their sites where I could input my address, my energy use, and a few other details and the sites would provide a detailed explanation of what incentives were available to me, what the energy producing potential of my property was, and even what my payback interval would be.

I checked the information that each of the installers websites provided me against what I already knew from my incentives research and surprisingly, the information jived.  Next, I met with each of the installers to discuss my options further and finally arrived at my decision to go with Astrum Solar as my installer.

I chose Astrum for a number of reasons. My first impression of them was through their website, which was the best I saw in the way of providing tools to show me, with some pretty stunning accuracy, what a potential system was going to cost me and what incentives I would be able to take advantage of.  Astrum had a good offering of products and everyone I spoke with there seemed to know their stuff based on the research I did.

To make a long story short, a good installer will make the incentive process as easy for you as possible.  They should know their products and why certain products are good in different applications, and lastly, they have the whole process for selection, from financing, to installation, through product support and SREC sale, locked up.  My installer had all of this together and verified what I already knew, so I had to peace of mind to know that I wasn't being taken for a ride.

More on the process through installation next time... Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Just a quick note of inspiration for the new year! I hope everyone has a great 2012!

“Too much and too long, we seem to have surrendered community excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our gross national product...if we should judge the United States of America by that - counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for those who break them. It counts the destruction of our redwoods and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and the cost of a nuclear warhead, and armored cars for police who fight riots in our streets. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children. 

Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it tells us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.” 
― Robert F. Kennedy

My Solar Adventure - Part 1 - Incentives

It all started about a year and a half ago (insert dream sequence here)...  I found myself needing to research solar incentives for a graduate class I was taking.  One thing lead to another and fifty-two solar panels later,  my house produces more energy than it uses.

I know... it's quite a leap going from a spring semester research project to a financial decision that you would think will keep my kids in student loans for the rest of their lives.  It turns out that it's one of the better decisions I've ever made (and I just sprained my shoulder patting myself on the back!).

So how did I get here, you might ask.  Well, it started with a web site where you can find any and all incentives available to businesses and homeowners interested in renewable energy installations in the United States. That site was created by the US Department of Energy, NC State University, the National Renewable Energy Lab and a few other organizations and in typical government program naming fashion, it has an strange acronym. DSIRE (careful Google-ing that one!) or the Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency is your one stop shopping location for everything energy.

As you can see, you simply click on the state that you're interested in learning about incentives for and those state's incentives are listed.

In a nutshell, what I learned from this site was that Pennsylvania, my home state, had a program called the PA Sunshine Solar Rebate Program, which provided a $1.25 per watt rebate for the installed cost of electrical grid tied photovoltaic systems up to a 10 kilowatt size.  One item that I want to note a about this program, however, is that the grant has been mostly allocated and new installations are currently placed on a waiting list. More on that later, though, as there are additional incentives in place that I will discus at a later point in this topic series. 

One other PA state program that I wanted to mention is the Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission - Solar Alternative Energy Credit program. This program provides owners of qualified, grid tied, PV systems with something called a solar renewable energy credit or SREC for every megawatt hour (1,000 kilwatt hours) of energy produced.  Public utilities in most states, Pennsylvania included, are required to provide a certain amount of their energy portfolio from renewable sources, so these SRECs can be sold on an open market to these utilities, restricted to some states, to help these utilities meet their renewable energy requirements.  The price of these SRECs goes up and down based on supply and demand of their market, but their purpose is to provide a longer term, performance based incentive for installing a PV system.

On top of the state rebate, the Federal Government offers a 30% tax credit on the installed cost of a PV system with no limit on size and some utilities offer additional incentives.  Some states, not including Pennsylvania, offer other incentives such a property assessed clean energy or PACE loans that allow homeowners to finance the cost of installing renewable energy systems by adding the cost to property taxes paid on the home and paid over a term of around fifteen to twenty years.  This loan stays with the home should the original owner move and spreads out the cost over time to the point where it's less of a financial burden. 

So, to keep this topic manageable, I will stop here and pick up with choosing an installer next time.  Unfortunately the incentive landscape can be very local and, I believe, is largely the reason why most people immediately think that installing a system is outside of their price range.  Honestly, I thought the same thing and only found out otherwise after I was forced to do a tremendous amount of research for my graduate course. 

To be clear, I know that the financial case for installing a system is very good under the right conditions especially when you consider the volatility of energy prices across the globe. If I didn't know this fact, I would not be writing this blog. In year one, my system is cash flow positive on a month to month basis and the pure payback of the system is under five years at current energy prices.  So, stay tuned and hopefully I can help clear up the fog.

And We're Back!!!!

I've spent the last few months finishing up an MBA, so I haven't had much time to be Potentially Energetic.  I'm feeling more energized now that my coursework is complete, so I'm hoping to shock readers with more electrifying wisdom... OK, this is horrible, so I'll stop, but stay tuned. Thanks for visiting!

Belkin's Answer to the Abandoned Charger

Don't let this happen to you!

Lonely Chargers Looking for a Nice Phone

Does this scene exist in your home? Be honest! My guess is "yes" and you're not alone as according to the Consumer Electronics Association only about a third of all consumers always unplug and as much as 61% or people sometimes or always neglect to unplug the charger after they disconnect a charged device. Fear not! Belkin has come to rescue your bank account with the Conserve Valet Smart USB Charging Station.


Here is what it looks like and a short video clip on how it works.

Belkin Valet Video Link

The purpose of this product is to allow you to charge your mobile devices (cellphone, smartphones, cameras, anything that is able to charge via USB) without racking up lots of standby (vampire) power usage, but more on that in a moment. 


The first detail I noticed about the Belkin Valet was the packaging, or I should say the lack of it. As a self proclaimed geek I've purchased a lot of electronics in my life.  More recently, many of those products claim to have some kind of environmentally friendly or "green" attribute.  Some of those claims are true and some are not, but even for the ones that can legitimately claim environmental benefit my first perception of the product comes, not from the claims made, but from the packaging.  I despise those bubble packed clam shell things that a lot of devices are sold in these days.  Nothing tells me you're not serious about your environmental claims quicker that an oversized, cardboard and plastic mound of garbage held together with twist ties.  Honestly all of this material is a cost that product manufacturers externalize onto consumers because we have to pay (through municiple taxes and waste hauling fees) to recycle and/or throw that mess away! You're also paying some incremental cost to have all of the packaging material included with the product.


Anyway, enough with the rant. My point is that far too often all that additional packaging is not necessary and Belkin, with it's Conserve series of products provides us with excellent examples of what good, responsible packaging should look like. See here (tomatoes sold seperately)-->


Look! No ridiculous extra plastic bags. No unnecessary plastic covering and only one (yes one) twist tie.  The whole package unfolds into one beautifully flat piece of cardboard just itching to be recycled.  The only missing piece is that I don't see an FSC certification label on the package, but we'll let that slide for now.  All-in-all a great job by the packaging engineers at Belkin for considering this often overlooked, but glaringly visible detail!


OK, one additional quick rant related to where I bought this device.  Unfortunately, Best Buy, where I normally buy all of my electronic devices did not have the Valet stocked at any of the 3 stores that I visited in my area, so I had to order it, which I did from the store.  While walking through a local Sears earlier in the week I noticed that their electronics department carried both the Valet, and a power metering device similar to the Kill-A-Watt that I previously reviewed and all of the other products in the Belkin Conserve line.  Bad Best Buy! Good Sears!


So I know you're thinking, blah, blah, blah... enough about the packaging and the responsible product offerings of retail establishments already!  Does the thing actually work as advertised?  Well in a word, "yes," and let's take a look at my little field test. 


As shown in the video posted above, essentially you plug the USB cord that came with your handheld device into one of the four USB slots located on the Valet. The Valet charges the connected devices and returns to a zero energy state within 4 hours or automatically turns itself off if charging devices are removed from their chargers.  Let's see the details...


First, I plugged in a power strip to my Kill-A-Watt to setup the test and was a bit surprise.  This old power strip actually consumed a small amount of electricity (0.4 of a watt) all the time, so I had to subtract this amount from each of the next few tests (keep that in mind when you see the number on the Kill-A-Watt screen).

Then I looked at home much energy a generic LG charger that I regularly use to charge my Motorolla Droid 2.  Turns out it only uses about 0.1 of a watt.

I then separately tested the charger for my wife's iPhone (yes I do this kind of stuff in my free time).  It uses 0.2 of a watt.

I then plugged both chargers in and tested the amount that both used together. 0.4 (from the power strip) + 0.1 (from the LG charger) + 0.2 (from the iPhone charger) = 0.7 of a watt as expected.

Next I checked the Belkin Valet and as advertised, it does not consume any electricity in standby mode.

Next I checked the consumption of the two chargers with both phones plugged, which added up to 12.1 watts.

Lastly, I checked the consumption of the Valet with the two phones connected and charging and found that it was consuming only 10.3 watts, which I believe could extended the needed charging time slightly, but given that the valet turns itself off to a zero energy state after the phones are charged, there is some savings there that would make up for the additional time.

I've used the Belkin Valet for a few weeks now.  Typically my wife and I will plug our phones into it at night and allow them to charge.  In the morning both phones are charged and the Valet isn't pulling any electricity.


Overall I recommend this device. The benefit of the valet is that it's an aesthetically attractive solution that allows you to clean up the mess of cables around your phones/handhelds while saving you some money in wasted energy.  I would like to point out, however, that you could probably achieve the same effect with a timer such as this one, which I use to charge my laptop only during certain periods of time since the charger uses 80 watts, or do what I typically do and charge you phone in your car. My commute is long enough that I can typically charge the phone to the point where it lasts me all day.  A device like a phone charger is not going to impact your fuel economy and your car's alternator is generating the power anyway, so why not use it.


Belkin's Conserve line also includes a power strip with a master control slot that cuts standby power and is very similar to the 360 Electronics and Rocketfish strips that I previously reviewed.  Check them all out at a Sears (and other stores) near you.


Dennis

My Whole House Fan

With the temperate weather we've had the last few days we've been able to turn off the air conditioner in our home and enjoy the cool nights.  What's made this even easier while still being able to maintain a certain comfort level in our home is that we have a whole house fan.

This past spring and into the early summer the area that I live in (Lancaster County, PA) experienced many days where the daytime temperatures were in the 80s and the nights in the 50s and 60s.  My home is well insulated, so even with the windows open, it is somewhat difficult to change the temperature inside the home drastically without fans or other devices pulling outside air in. Since our air conditioner uses approximately 3,000 to 3,500 watts of electricity when it's running and is by far our largest electricity consumer, we try not to turn it on until temperatures become unbearable.  I also want to mention that our trigger for turning the AC on is somewhat heavy since we have two small children and my wife and my sleep quality is directly correlated to their sleep quality.

So, after some research we decided that we were going to install a whole house fan to help push the hot air out of our home and pull cold air in at night and early in the morning.  One concern with any penetration that you make in your home is that you will also be disturbing the building envelope and the insulation that helps create that envelope.  Whole house fans are usually placed through the most critical area of the building envelope, that being your attic, so by adding something that might give you some relief in temperate parts of the year, you could also be creating a gaping hole that will allow very cold air to infiltrate during very cold portions of the year and cause you to have to spend more money to heat your home. If you're able to access the attic side of a whole house fan and are able to insulate above it effectively, this may not be an issue for you.  For me, accessing my attic is very difficult, and I'm not confident in my motivation to actually climb up there, through the loose fill insulation and place insulation on top of the fan in the winter months.

So, I purchased a fan that has remote control doors that are insulated to the same R-value (R-38) as the rest of my attic. When the fan turns on, the doors open. When the fan is turned off, the doors close and maintain the building envelope.

The fan that I purchased is the Tamarak HV1600 whole house fan. I installed it myself with the help of my neighbor (Rick), which was super easy since it's already sized to fit between the attic floor joists, which are 24" on center.  I only had to add framing to two sides, an electrical outlet to plug the fan in, and some self adhering weather seal between the body of the fan and the floor joists.  With everything in place I cut through the drywall, put the fan in place, plugged it in, installed the included fan cover and that was it.

Tamarak HV1600 w/R38 Insulated Doors

The HV1600 is quite and is very effective at cooling my home down quickly and maintaining a nice breeze.  The fan has two speed and the remote control works on a radio signal, so it will work anywhere within my home.

If the HV 1600 seems a bit pricey, you can find other whole house fans (models from Lowes & Home Depot) at your local home center.  However you need to consider how much noise these fans can generate and how you're going to handle the insulation issue in the winter (and even the summer when the fan isn't running). You'll also need to install a control switch  somewhere, ensure that you have enough air flow from your attic to the outside (gable, ridge, or soffit venting) and some of these fans are sized in such a way that you may need to do some additional framing in your attic to make them fit correctly.  I can't stress the insulation and noise issues enough.  Purchasing a less expensive fan may save you some money in having to run your air conditioner less, but you might end up costing yourself in increased winter heating costs and lost sleep due to high noise levels.  

The easy installation, insulating, low noise, and power of the Tamarak HV1600 made this fan the right one for my home.  One last important point I wanted to make is again related to the insulation we have in our home. I mentioned earlier how it's difficult to change the temperature in our home without mechanical intervention. Well, this holds true in the summer when it's cooler inside the home than outside.  Our strategy with the fan is to run it at night and in the morning to bring down the temperature in the home.  Around mid morning we'll turn the fan off and close the windows and doors to keep the cold in.  In the spring this was a good enough tactic to keep the house comfortable all day without having to use our AC.  I'm anticipating the same results in the fall as it's worked well for us the last few days.

The difference in energy consumption between my whole house fan and my whole house AC are very significant.  As I mentioned, my AC uses between 3,000 and 3,500 watts while it's running and the HV1600 uses only 100 to 150 watts depending on the speed setting of the fan.  Payback is completely dependent upon the amount of time you're substituting one for the other. If your home has good shading or temperatures are cooler, your payback with be quicker. Based on the amount of time we run the fan, my anticipated payback is around 2.5 years.

Stay cool!