Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: query about photovoltaics (solar panels)

[Grace Kim (grace]

At Capitol Hill Urban Cohousing, install happened 4 years after move in (this 
summer in fact).

We planned for conduit runs that allowed this to more easily happen...though 
there were some hiccups of using that...but if it's not too late, ask your 
architect/electrician to provide conduit runs even if you can't do the install 
now.

Install was paid for by one of our community members. They really valued this 
and wanted to make it happen -it was a measure of future proofing (presuming 
that our energy costs may increase in the future).

In terms of asking whether it provides the power we anticipated. We are a very 
unique situation - our energy consumption (as measured by Energy Use Intensity 
or EUI) was quite low for a multifamily building - we had an EUI of 17 prior to 
install of our PV...most multifamily in our region has an EUI of 45-50. So our 
needs were pretty low. It is more than covering common house power, although it 
will be interesting to see what happens when we resume meals, since cooking 
(and showering) are the two largest consumers of residential energy.

I'm cc'ing one of my community members who is tracking energy use more closely 
and might have more to report.

If you are interested in seeing what our PV install looks like (as well as our 
rooftop farm), we created a very short video this summer.  
https://vimeo.com/453836336



grace h. kim aia | schemata workshop, inc.
principal
pronouns: she/her

1720 12th avenue
seattle wa 98122
p 206.285.1589   c 206.795.2470
schemataworkshop.com<http://www.schemataworkshop.com/>

Watch my TED talk at 
TED.com<https://www.ted.com/talks/grace_kim_how_cohousing_can_make_us_happier_and_live_longer>

Schemata Workshop employees are currently working remotely given the current 
public health situation.