Re: Solar Panels | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: Fred H Olson (fholson![]() |
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Date: Thu, 5 Jul 2007 06:25:48 -0700 (PDT) |
Joel Plotkin <joel.plotkin [at] sunyit.edu> is the author of the message below. It was posted by Fred the Cohousing-L list manager <fholson [at] cohousing.org> because the original post contained html only which the server can not handle. -------------------- FORWARDED MESSAGE FOLLOWS -------------------- Hundredfold Farm in Orrtanna, PA, mandates solar panel set-ups for our 14 houses. We have seven houses up and running now. We also use solar hot water to preheat our high efficiency, natural gas-fired hot water heating systems. The average house has a 3.3 KW system. We are grid-interactive with our REA Coop, which subtracts energy generated from energy used in any month and banks any overage for repayment at the end of the year, at the wholesale generation rate. I have one of the smaller systems (2.0 KW) and still produce more than I use most months. The community mandates Energy Star appliances, as well, so my usage is low. In my previous energy-efficient house, I averaged about 400 KWH per month. With my Energy Star appliances (and compact fluorescents, common sense, etc.), my average usage is around 150 KWH per month. Given my low usage, I will probably never see an actual cash payback for the PV system. Our developer (whose name I'll omit because I DON'T recommend him) charged us the full retail price of about $10 per watt, so my system cost $19,000. Although he jollied us along with promises of a rebate, PA used up all its money before we completed the project, so we paid full price. We are hoping to figure out how to sell Green Credits (any advice is appreciated) to make some money, but we are accepting that our payback is mostly moral: having a low impact ourselves, showing other communities how to be Green, etc. Solar hot water, however, is a different story--easily installed, relatively inexpensive, with almost immediate payback, especially if combined with geothermal heating (a less expensive and lower-tech alternative to PV). The new evacuated-tube arrays are three times better than the older flat-plate technology which we have, and not much more expensive. We can exchange technical information off list, if you like. Good luck (and look at other paybacks than cash). Joel Plotkin Hundredfold Farm Orrtanna, PA
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solar panels Selwyn Polit, July 2 2007
- Re: solar panels Bonnie Fergusson, July 2 2007
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solar hot water in cold, overcast Michigan [was Re: solar panels] R.P. Aditya, July 2 2007
- Re: solar hot water in cold, overcast Michigan [was Re: solar panels] Philip Ralph Grinslade, July 9 2007
- Re: Solar Panels Fred H Olson, July 5 2007
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