Win a Green Home Audit!

September 18 is this year's date for "Bids, Boots & Barbecue," a benefit event for the Northern Neck Land Conservancy at Menokin historical site in Warsaw, VA.

This year, we have donated a Green Home Audit for the auction.

Help to preserve our local heritage through the silent auction, live music from local musicians, enjoying over 40 exhibiter booths, and lots of locally grown food.

For more information, see The Northern Neck Land Conservancy website.

GREEN LIVING CLASS

Want to learn how to live a greener life?

Come to my class the first three Wednesdays in March.

Rappahannock Institute of Lifelong Learning:
#101: Greening Your Life
Instructor: Elizabeth Gruben
March 2, 9, and 16 (Wednesdays); 1-3 p.m.
Menokin’s King Visitors Center, Warsaw

Week One will include an overview of environmental issues of our area and then a room by room discussion of what we can do to help make our personal and planetary environment healthier.

Week Two will address building, renovation, and restoration of our homes from site planning to limiting construction waste, to innovative materials, and operations.

Week Three will be a day of looking at some of the money/energy saving goodies from electric cars coming our this year, to power-miser gadgets, wrapping up the course with trusted resources for further study.

Registration: As class size may be limited, early registration is strongly advised. To register and pay by check, please contact RCC College Advancement Administrative Specialist Sharon Drotleff at: (804) 333-6707 (toll-free at 1-877-RCC-3679) or by email: adrotleff@rappahannock.edu, and request that a brochure be mailed to you.

The tuition fee must accompany the filled-out form and checks should be made payable to RCC/EFI. You may register and pay by phone with either Visa or MasterCard. Tuition is $35/course and is not tax-deductible. No tuition refunds will be made should a participant decide to cancel. Separate charitable gifts to the Foundation, designated for RILL, will help to defray RILL program costs. These gifts are tax-deductible. (www.rappahannock.edu/foundation)

See you there!!

More on Solar Project

Well, it's been over six months and so far we have generated over a megawatt more than we have used with only 25 panels. We'll see if the cloudy cold days of winter use that up or not.

So far, we have found several ways to regain our investment. First of all, we have been approved for our grant for stimulus money through the State (Department of Mines, Minerals, and Energy) for over $10,000. Our initial cost was $30,000, so another nearly $10,000 tax credit (which we will use) is coming on this year's taxes. The rest wil be recuperated from selling the excess power to Northern Neck Coop and selling SRECs.

SRECs (Solar Renewable Energy Credits) are credits that anyone who generates solar power can sell to a broker that in turn sells them to utility companies so that they can meet the mandatory percentage of either generating solar power themselves, or subsidizing those who generate (i.e. homeowners like us). For more information on SRECs, see: SREC TRADE. Payment is based on megawatts produced each quarter. We have produced over 4 megawatts in 6 months.

But the best part of all is NO electric bill other than the $20 per month to basically "rent" the net meter. Boy, is it fun watching that thing roll backwards.

WE ARE FINALLY SOLAR!!

Today, only a week after the final installation of the panels, new circuits, and inspection by Northern Neck Electric Cooperative (NNEC), the net meter was installed--taking less than a minute to do. I flipped the two circuits and we are officially running our meter backwards.

As it happens we also got our monthly accounting of power usage for the past month through yesterday from NNEC. So our next monthly report will be a complete month of solar power. NNEC sends me email every day telling me the usage of the previous day. I get one with an hourly graphic (gandt chart) and then the total for the day. We have been bouncing between 11kWh and 17kWh per day. This, by the way, is about one fourth of the consumption of our part time condo (per square foot), which is insulated on 5 sides by other condos.

Pictures to follow as soon as I can get them out of my camera.

HAPPY EARTH DAY!! (& Solar Project Update)

Max and crew showed up Tuesday with all that was needed to step into action after a long trek through morning traffic from Hampton to Kilmarnock.  Clearly, these guys have done this many times before.  They immediately set up a table and started lining up materials, tools and equipment while scoping out the roof.  Others were busily assembling clamps and brackets while installers donned their safety harnesses.  Regina, Max's wife and one who designed the layout of the system, had her CAD drawings ready for all to reference during the installation.

The combination of the steep saltbox roof and the grainy pollen did NOT help in keeping a sure foot, but the crew improvised by taking off their shoes and literally grabbing on with the balls of their feet, which were raw by the end of the day.

Keeping their footing

They persevered.   Once the first clips were in place and the critical panels were installed, a rhythm kicked in and they were rollin'.  

The first day showed tremendous progress.   We took a break mid-day and all enjoyed the cool breezes on the screen porch, while the crew broke out their cooler with a small feast for a hot and hungry bunch of guys.  Then back to work until it got too hot and almost too late to beat the traffic back to Hampton.

Day two, we were not so lucky with the weather and after a few more panels were installed, the rain hit and the guys were slipping all over the place. 

They had lunch in town at the Mexican place and headed back to Hampton while it poured the rest of the afternoon.

They'll be back Friday morning in time to complete the project, hook up to the two circuits and be ready for Scott from Northern Neck Electric Coop to inspect and put in the order for the net meter installation.  Scott says next week we will be ready to go.

So my task today was to hook up the EnPhase Energy's "Envoy Communications Gateway" to the network and register it online.	Done...
and done. [For larger view, click on image.]

Tune in next week for the next installment. We're headed to a wedding this weekend so I will get some images, but no time to post until Monday or so...

Update to Going Solar

All is in place and the installation will begin next Monday, April 5.  Watch this space for pictures and more info.

FINALLY GOING SOLAR!

We have finally found a vendor willing to come to the Northern Neck to supply and install Sharp solar panels on the garage roof that was initially designed to accommodate solar panels.

Max Buzard of Royer Technical Systems in Hampton, VA will implement the project. We wanted Sharp cells, not only for their superior reliability and lack of loss, but for their environmentally responsible manufacturing processes. We have also discussed wind turbines with Max, but we have still found wind power to be more expensive per wattage than solar. Also Solar is less intrusive to the surrounding homes. This is a good time to install solar and wind power systems because of the 30% Federal tax credit. To see more on this program, see the website explaining it all. In Virginia, there was also a generous state rebate paid out from the stimulus money, but they had so many requests, that program is now closed.

The process has been interesting so far. Aside form the usual permitting process, we had to do a couple of things that are typical for all projects. There is an Interconnectivity Form that is obtained from and returned to your power company before they will come and inspect your "renewable" energy system (wind or solar). Max got the forms and filled in the technical information before sending to me to sign and send back to Northern Neck Electric Cooperative (our power company). All can be handled via email and PDFs if you are too busy and also want to save time. Once you have cleared that final [safety] inspection, they install a meter that is cable of running backwards on the days that you create more energy than you can use. In Virginia and many other states, the power suppliers are required to buy back excess power from its customers at the same rate that they charge them.

Our initial system consists of twenty Photo Voltaic (PV) panels giving us an estimated output of 4.7 kilowatts. Each panel has its own transformer so that if one goes out, it doesn't bring the entire system down if one panel needs to be serviced. In the design, we have to make sure that there was space on the roof around the panels so that someone could walk around the panels to service them. These panels are predicted to provide 4.7 kilowatts, which will cover approximately 3/4 of our needs. Once the system has run for a few months, we'll add panels so that we will always be using less than we generate. The house is so efficient by using EnergyStar appliances and low wattage lighting (CFLs and LEDs) that we already are using 1/4th as many kilowatt hours (kWh) per square foot as our tiny condo in McLean.

Most electric bills will give you the past year's worth of monthly kWh usage. You can take that information to calculate your usage per square foot. This will help your vendor calculate how much renewable energy you would require before you would be selling it back to the power company.

We used to think the greenest homes would be completely off the grid. Now that net-metering is available, being on the grid and actually sharing your excess energy is even more environmentally responsible. If everyone would generate their maximum solar and wind capabilities, and conserve by using low energy demand devices, we could at the stop building more power plants. If everyone just conserved energy to the extend possible, we would eliminate our dependence on foreign oil.

When they come to install the system, I'll post images here. In the meantime, you can read more about net-metering here.

We used to think the greenest homes would be completely off the grid. Now that net-metering is available, being on the grid and actually sharing your excess energy is even more environmentally responsible. If everyone would generate their maximum solar and wind capabilities, and conserve by using low energy demand devices, we could at the stop building more power plants. If everyone just conserved energy to the extend possible, we would eliminate our dependence on foreign oil. When they come to install the system, I'll post images here. In the meantime, you can read more about net-metering

WAYS TO CONSERVE ENERGY: o - Unplug appliances when not in use o - Once a device is charged, unplug the charger o - Use Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs or LEDs o - Buy only EnergyStar appliances and devices o - Use reflective or blackout shades on windows facing South in hot weather. o - Dimmer switches on your incandescent and halogen lights