Power Outage - lessons learned

We lost power for 12 hours today. We learned that we need a backup plan beyond the fire place for heat and power but we also learned that on a sunny day, the temperature in our house is 54 degrees - not bad, lending credence to the strategy of south facing buildings with lots of glass on the south side. I plan to undertake a BTU/sq. ft. calculation to determine how our performs versus other houses.

More savings

Based on our most recent energy bill, our family used 36% less electricity this January over January last year. Adding the impact of our 2.8KW solar array - we generated 168KWH (this will be our lowest producing month) so our total net KWH reduction is 49% over this time last year. We also used 28% less natural gas versus January of last year. Its been cold in the house, but not freezing. One of the things I noticed was the impact of a south facing house. there were days when the heat was set at 62, but it was 65 in the dining room as the south sun provided passive heating (40 degrees outside). (think of it as something similar to getting in your car in the winter on a sunny day). the temperature outside is cold but its warmer in the car. So, finally, we are starting see some benifit of all this effort and investment.

Pictures of PV Array

This is our 2.8KW PV array installed by EOS Energy. It looks like it will generate about 1/4 of our power in the winter (we have forced air heat which requires electricity). In the spring and Fall, we expect a near-zero bill (if we are really careful about our consumption). Our inverter tells us how much power we generate each day and how much CO2 we have saved since the system was installed. Next post will cover the various rebates that we will be receiving.

Its starting to pay off!

We received our electric, gas and water bills this month and I am proud to say that paying attention to energy usage is paying off. I've been collecting data from our bills all last year when we lived without much focus on being efficient.

Last December, we used 1094 KWH and this December we used 861 KWH. That's a 22% savings over last year. Our house uses forced air heat with a pretty inefficient furnace (we'll upgrade that when we can). Our gas use—minus cooking and hot water—went from 237cf to 203cf—a 14% savings—mostly due to careful use of both the thermostat and the pellet stove. We used about ten bags of pellets at $4.50 per bag, so we saved a little bit of money there.

Electric prices in the Philaelphia area are expected to rise about 20% next year so these savings will become more important. The PV panels were activated in January - so stay tuned. Our water bills, thanks to energy star washer and dishwasher and a dual flush toilet is consistently about half or less of the national average which saves us about 600 dollars per year. One day we'll have a large rain water cistern to bring that number down further. Stay tuned for pictures of the 2.8 KW array!

Beautiful Noise

There is lots of activity inside and outside the house today.
Inside, the kids are enjoying their Christmas bounty with Aunt Kathy, who has come for her holiday visit from California.

Outside, the sounds of footsteps, drills and hammers on the roof. The PV array is finally going up. FINALLY! It's not the 3.5k system we had originally planned, but a smaller 2.8k system. Them's the breaks. We should be fully functional by the end of today. Fingers and toes are crossed.

This is a huge leap from where we were just a few weeks ago. As I wrote earlier, we'd experienced an unbelievably stressful fall/early winter.

We were let down by Solaris Energy, our previous solar installer. Let down is a very nice way to put it. Our trust (and out investement) in the company and it's president was completely pretty much lost. Let's just say that we now have the attorney general's office and local court system involved in the relationship with them.

The situation with Solaris Energy has potentiallly set us back several years, but the beautiful noise reminds me why we set out on this journey.

What a @#%&* Fall!

FIVE MONTHS. Five months since the last entry. PA-thet-ic!

In the last post we were happy. The roof was done, no more leaks during rain storms, and the solar array was about to be installed. It was Tuesday, July 28 and the solar installer was to begin the installation the following day. Ah, the good ol' days when we were young. OK—so we were the same age it feels like we aged far more rapidly than normal.

No one showed. That does happen. Sometimes contractors fall behind schedule and don't always call. We're patient people. Understanding people. We waited until the Monday. Nobody and no evidence that any equipment had arrived. Not a thing. OK, time to call Mr. McKinley, the friendly solar contractor who was so jovial on camera during the Renovation Nation episode. A regular Mr. Happy. So helpful, so charming.

So we called. And our dear Mr. McKinley told us that there was a snafu with the panels. They would be drop shipped to the house on Wednesday.

Thing of Beauty

Finished, completed, leakless.

The roof is done and it looks lover-ly! A lovely roof? Seriously?

In our old house the way the roof looked didn't matter. It was three stories above eye-level. The beauty of that house was in the victorian details of the porch (even though it was falling apart), windows, and masonry. But that was in the big city. Out suberbia, the roof on our split-level house is akin to Dr. Suess's Cat's hat. In other words, the roof is a major part of the house's visual identity. And did I mention it doesn't leak?