Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Do you have solar PV on your common house?

[PattyMara Gourley (pattymara]

On Wed, 17 Sep 2003 13:35:47 -0700 Marty Roberts <MartyR [at] sonic.net>
writes:
> I would love a few testimonials from those of you (especially in CA) 
that have installed solar and how you like it.  Soon - would be very 
> helpful.

Tierra Nueva, central CA coast, installed photovoltaic roof panels on our
common house last spring.  We used the reserve funds (required by CA real
estate regs) to "borrow" money from ourselves to pay for the
installation, and got in line for the rebates from the state.  The plan
is to pay ourselves back with the $150-200 per month which used to go to
PG&E for monthly utility costs.  I wasn't on the task force that crunched
the numbers on this but I seem to recall that the payback was over a
period of of either five or ten years, was researched and confirmed to be
an appropriately legal use of reserve funds, and so far, so good.  The
task force who researched and presented the arguments for investing in
roof panels did such a great job of  educating the group that their
proposal was passed with full consensus, no stand asides.  

One can walk by the meters on the side of the common house and watch the
numbers on the readout confirming that we are generating solar energy
that goes "back to the grid".  Since it has only been about 6 months, we
have yet to see a full cost/savings analysis (something about the having
to wait a full year to get the figures from the utility company on how
much was generated/how much was used), but there are folks here who know
a whole lot more about this than I do (Steph Wald,  
swaldcoho [at] hotmail.com)

There are also folks here who are toying with the notion of going full
solar, with batteries to store the generated power, and the potential of
going "off the grid" in the future.

Patty Mara Gourley
Tierra Nueva, where we are scurrying around rehearing plays, spoofs and
musical numbers for our 5th anniversary Variety Show and Equinox
Extravaganza AND breathing the clean autumn air, free from the usual
Methyl Bromide fumigations that usually happen this time of year in the
strawberry field which borders our land.  Instead, we have an organic
farmer preparing to plant a cover crop to return nutrients to the soil.  

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