Going For Solar - Solar Site Survey (Step 3)

Ben and Jordan taking measurements

After you have done all the energy efficiency upgrades and behavior modifications around the house to reduce your load, then it is time to think about renewable energy (Caveat - See the caveat for New Jersey at the end of our earlier post).  To get started you should ask a local solar contractor to conduct a solar site survey.

A solar site survey is a thorough analysis of a site to ensure that it is practical for solar.  A good contractor will explain what incentives are available in your area, what size project would work for your location and the what the ballpark price for such a project.  Some may even offer financing plans.  Typically a solar contractor will do this initial site survey at no or minimal cost.

If you want to do a bit more research about incentives, check out the DSIRE list of federal and state renewable energy (and energy efficiency) incentives for your state.

Before getting to far into our solar site survey, I should explain the two types of solar energy to consider - solar photovoltaic (electricity), abbreviated PV, and solar thermal (heat).  Depending on your location and desires one or the other may be more appropriate for you.  You are really lucky if you work both into your site. Now back to our project.

To get started we contacted SunBug Solar to conduct a free solar site survey at our house and determine if our solar dream was possible and estimate how much it would cost.  For help locating contractors near you, check out EnergySavvy.com.

Our Solar Site Survey

Jordan showing our 5 yo son
how a Solar PathFinder works

Ben Mayer (he's the one standing on the little roof above) and Jordan Belknap, an engineer, from SunBug Solar met with Alicia and I for about 2 hours one afternoon.  Ben and I had already talked about our hopes for the project and what we wanted to accomplish.  They had looked at the aerial photos from Bing in advance so they had a sense of what the property looked like and what trees and structures might shade the planned solar array.

While on site, Ben and Jordan were very helpful explaining what they were doing and even took the time to explain it to our son.  Jordan is showing him how they use a Solar PathFinder to map out the path of the sun throughout the day all through the year.  You can see an overhead view of our backyard in the picture below.  If you see the dark things around edges that shows the path of the shade.  Fortunately, this picture was taken near the ground and in the middle of our backyard. The shading is significantly less when measured from in the actual locations of the planned PV array and up on a ladder at the height where the array will eventually be built.

Solar PathFinder shows
shading in our yard

A good solar site will have very little shading between the hours of 8am and 4pm all year round. A good solar contractor will then use software to calculate the actual impact of the shading shown.  They import the pictures and then trace the shadow.  The software generates a report and calculates the impact of the shade throughout the year.  In our case, our neighbors had this beautiful hundred plus year old maple tree that was casting a lot of shade.  With this shading our project would have been at the 80% borderline for effectiveness required to qualify for the Commonwealth Solar II Rebates in Massachusetts.  Fortunately for us, a huge branch from the tree broke off and fell into our yard two days before the solar site survey.  An Arborist examined the tree and confirmed that it was rotten and needed to come down.  Our neighbors removed the tree and the shading picture has greatly improved.

Solar PathFinder measures shading all year long

One assumption that I noticed in the numbers I had received from SunBug Solar was the estimated increase in electricity price was 5%.  While I think that is a reasonable value to select, my review of historical residential electricity prices for Massachusetts came back with a 3.5% annual rate of increase for the past 10 years.  A good contractor will rerun the numbers with what you feel are more comfortable numbers and Ben at SunBug Solar was more than happy to oblige several times.

After the solar site survey, SunBug Solar prepared a proposed basic design (number of solar panels, inverter, mounting structure) and cost estimate for us. Given the cost of a PV project (on the order of one or two new cars), you should be sure to get several quotes and estimates from reputable contractors before signing on the dotted line.  Keep in mind this is a 20+ year investment, so spending a little more time upfront will be well worth it.  We will discuss getting multiple bids in our next article in the Going for Solar series.

Happy Greening!
Jon & Alicia

Check out the other steps in Green Lifestyle Consulting's Going for Solar Series including photos throughout the construction.

Green Week in Review July 12th- 18th, 2010

Changing how transportation works and getting away from fossil fuels appears to be the theme this week, with a few energy/water demand shaping articles thrown in to keep it interesting.  Let's get started.

CNET: Toyota taps Tesla to bring back electric RAV4

Photo: Mike Weston

With a 100 mile range, an all electric RAV4 would make a great commuting car.  It is nice to see other outcomes from the Tesla/Toyota projects like this.

CNET: Mercedes-Benz shows off its green supercar

Photo: Mercedes Benz

Tesla isn't the only one who can make all electric power cars.  Here is a sweet ride from Mercedes which might spell good things in the works for production cars down the road.

Treehugger: Want to Kick Our Oil Addiction? Let's Get Our Priorities Straight First

Matt McDermott makes some good points in this article.  A shocking 71% of oil goes into transportation of people and goods, so clearly that is a good place to work on reducing our consumption of oil.  The bigger energy picture is equally important though and should drive our prioritization of projects for the future.  Also, since a huge portion of the transportation is related to food, something like over 25% of all traffic is related to the production and distribution of food, better solutions for more local food sources would be have huge impacts on our oil consumption as well, not to mention health benefits.

Treehugger: Boeing Unveils Hydrogen-Powered Phantom Eye Unmanned Drone

Photo: Boeing

It is nice to see the military development leading some of the clean fuel and energy projects.  This hydrogen powered UAV is a great example.  Wouldn't it be great to see this combined with the solar plane idea to have an even longer duration flight.  Imagine the aerial surveys of towns that could be done using UAV with IR cameras.

CNET: Virtual power plants fill supply gaps in heat wave

Articles like this help explain why the SmartGrid is so important to the future.  On hot summer days we use more electricity for cooling than at other times.  Even minor adjustments of behavior, like washing dishes or clothes at night or raising the temperature 1 degree can have big impacts when aggregated across the grid.  We hope to see more examples of an even smarter grid in action in the future.

Treehugger: NYC to Track Real Time Water Use With Wireless Meters

If we could get real time usage for water (and eventually natural gas) in addition to that available for electricity today with the TED5000, that would be amazing.  If you can measure it, you can do something about it.  Unfortunately, according to our friends in Brooklyn, as with the early electric utility models for Smart Meters, it looks like the Water Companies are stopping short of providing the data to their customers where it could be really put to use. Hopefully that will shift soon.

Runners up:

• Huffington Post: 8 Ways To Keep Cool Without Air Conditioning (PHOTOS) 
• MIT: The aerosols conundrum
• Treehugger: Washington Moms Climb Mt Rainier to Protest Dirty Coal
• Treehugger: Energy Star Hands Out First Ever Certification For a Data Center

Happy Greening!
Jon & Alicia

Energy Savings Leads to Green Jobs

We spend a lot of time talking about things that families can do in their homes or apartments to save energy.  Today we are going to flip that around some and look at some of the things that result from individuals and businesses seeking to improve their energy efficiency, namely green jobs.

Software Advice, in 5 Green Retrofits for Electricians, writes about the 5 things that licensed electricians should be marketing as services to provide energy savings ($ and CO2).

The 5 areas Mr. Neal discusses are areas we will be covering from the perspective of the home owner:

• Relamping
• Daylight Harvesting
• Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) Retrofits
• Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Systems and Wind Turbines - See our Going For Solar Series
• Energy Management Systems and Monitoring Devices -See TED 5000 articles

If you are an electrician, you should definitely read  5 Green Retrofits for Electricians as should anyone seeking examples of how energy efficient projects lead to green jobs.

Happy Greening!
Jon

Green Week in Review, July 5th - 12th, 2010

We hope everyone is using those fans to help them stay cool through the heatwave of the past week.  Given the bright sun we've been experiencing it is appropriate that most of this week's green news is about solar.

TreeHugger: Solar Powered Airplane Flies for 26 Hours Straight

Photo via the NY Times

This could be the dawn of a new era of clean aviation, though I am sure that we are decades from having this be cost effective for transporting people or goods.  It is still amazing that with solar power alone, a plane could take off, fly for 26 hours (through the night) and land.  I expect this will become the predominant design for UAVs for military and civilian uses not for the clean energy angle, but rather for the indefinite flight time without refueling.  Amazing!

TreeHugger: The Link Between Record-Breaking Global Heat Waves and Climate Change

Image via ClimateProgress.org

What can I say, it's been very hot.  As a scientist that has been so frustrated with the media and others saying that a particular weather event was global warming or not, I was very glad to see this article that explains how a single event in one locality is not a sign of the bigger climate change, but that the heat wave which is global in nature is connected.  Read on for more.

TreeHugger: Feds Back Big Solar Power With Nearly $2 Billion in Loan Guarantees

Diagram of how trough-based concentrating solar power works: Abengoa Apparently, one of our friend of a friend was at the signing of this bill and got to meet President Obama.  I am very hopeful that this signals a much needed shift to invest heavily in US made renewable energy.  We are falling behind the rest of the world and need to invest in the future, not the past fossil fuel industry.

Federal Stimulus Funds 46 Massachusetts Solar Projects

And more locally, it is nice to see the funds driving development of clean energy around Massachusetts.

TreeHugger: Energy Efficiency: Twice the Impact of Renewables, Nuclear and Clean Coal. Combined.

And just in case you think we've gone gaga for solar, we are still bigger fans of energy efficiency. This report illustrates that we have so much to save with energy efficiency and it is definitely the quickest and cheapest, but unfortunately not sexiest way to save energy.

We will write up some of our green adventures from camping with kids this weekend to share when we find some time.  Until then have a great week and use the fans instead of air conditioning whenever possible to stay cool.

Happy Greening!
Alicia & Jon

Green Week in Review - June 28th - July 4th, 2010

Happy Independence Day!

As I reflected this Fourth of July on the idea of declaring independence from Britain some 234 years ago, I could not help but realize that we need to make a new declaration of independence from fossil fuels. 

These next few articles relate to the growing need for our elected official to act on climate change, but stay tuned for a more lengthy post on what a declaration of independence from fossil fuels would do for our wonderful nation.

TreeHugger: Obama: Energy Bill Must Price Carbon
I very much want to see a price on carbon as I think that will be the fastest and best way to launch massive changes to more efficient use of energy.  I particularly want to see the price extend beyond the utility companies and be included in every gallon of gasoline we buy or therm of natural gas we burn in our homes.  We'd love to hear from our readers what price they think should be put on a gallon of gasoline in the comments.

TreeHugger: Prominent Green Activists Ask Obama To Step Up Climate Efforts Now 
Al Gore, Maggie Fox, Fred Krupp and several others asked President Obama to personally get involved in moving Climate Change Legislation forward in the US.  I would love to see President Obama make a declaration of independence from fossil fuels (especially foreign ones that lead us to costly wars).

TreeHugger: Debunking the GOP Claim that Cap and Trade is an "Energy Tax"
I hope more people see this as it is one of the best counter discussions against the unfortunately very effective GOP PR machine that is ignoring the real problems and not looking at real solutions.

In other news this week, we see square light bulbs (LED of course), the growing focus on consumers in the smart grid and how much food we waste each year.

TreeHugger: The Weight of 74 Golden Gate Bridges Wasted in Food. Each Year. In USA Alone.

I can't believe how much food is wasted each year, about 25% in the US, especially when you consider most of it goes into the landfill instead of being composted. The energy to produce and distribute that wasted food is 1% of the US Oil Consumption (I think Scientific American stated their figures wrong). 

CNET GreenTech: Consumers getting more attention in smart grid

As a TED 5000 home energy monitor owner who loves looking at our real time energy usage (including cost per hour - currently $0.50/hr with 3 ACs and the dishwasher running), I am very glad to see that the Smart Grid talks are starting to focus more on getting information into the hands of the consumers who make the decisions to use the energy.

TreeHugger: Illumitex Wants to Make Your Lightbulbs Square (and More Efficient)

Photo: Illumitex

Way to think out of the box, though I'm not sure a square bulb is going to have that same "bright ideas" imagery we've come to expect of the light bulb.  I look forward to seeing other new LED products on the market and while I'm in favor of bulbs I can screw in today, new construction and renovations can benefit from new fixture types like the Illumitex.


Runners up
TreeHugger: OMG, NRDC Sues FDA to Make NFG BPA DOA

We hope everyone's 4th of July was wonderful, safe and green.

Happy Greening!
Jon & Alicia