Tiny and Not So Tiny Home Choices
By Karina | June 25, 2008
I came across this article yesterday and it is so exciting! I am ashamed to admit that in the last few months I’ve fallen woefully behind in environmental tech news, so while I knew that thin film solar technologies were out there, I didn’t realize that they were hitting mass production (and hitting the rooftops!).I’m not a homeowner, but some of my favorite people are so I immediately sent many of then them this article. There are a lot of great examples of how to save energy in the article too – check the side bar for some real costs (also quoted below). Most of us don’t have $20K to spend on home improvements – That is NOT a tiny choice! – but the article does show how looking at the environmental choices when you have to make a big change (like replacing the A/C, kitchen appliances, or even ceiling fans) can lead to a big reduction in your energy bill.
John Novar and his wife, Pat, bought their 2,312-square -foot home in Pinecrest in 1996. In September 2005, their electric bill hit a peak of $325.61. A solar system would require a larger roof and cost as much as he paid for the house, so Novar took other steps to reduce his energy consumption. Here’s a look at what he did and his costs:
55 compact fluorescent bulbs $110
GESPER power surge electricity saver $875
American Heat tankless water heater $395
Hy-Tech Thermal Paint, roof repair $4,436
Three Gossamer Wind high-efficiency ceiling fans $796
Appliance replacement (kitchen and laundry) $7,353
Air conditioner unit replacement $5,958
Total cost to reduce energy consumption $19,922Novar has reduced his kilowatt hours by 53 percent, and his bill in September 2007 was $137.95. He figures the payback time is nine years, assuming his electric bills increase 3 percent annually.
The article also mentions thin film solar! That is really exciting to me because as you may have noticed, dear tiny choosers: I love gadgets. Love them! and thin film solar is the latest neat innovation in electricity generation on the home-owners level. Let’s be honest here. What is more exciting than generating electricity at home on your roof? Only being able to sell it back to the electric company to off-set whatever you have to purchase overnight. I love the idea that pretty soon every single one of us will be able to produce electricity on our roofs to offset what we’re using. How totally guerrilla and grass roots is that? How wonderful to be able to take responsibility for the energy we use?
OK, so, what is thin film solar? It’s a solar panel that is printed – in some ways just like an ink-jet printer works – onto a thin and at times flexible backing medium. They are super light, they can be glued onto your roof, and they don’t require any fancy structural work during installation. And they’re CHEAP. Prices are still dropping, and right now they’re at roughly $2.40/watt compared to $3/W or $4/W for larger crystalline units. A lot of the cost savings are in installation costs, but they are improving the mass-production of thin film solar all the time.
It seems like efficiencies of about 12% for thin films seem to be about standard – which is less than traditional crystalline solar cells – but there is new work going on every day to improve the efficiency of these solar cells. EcoGeek reports on some of this work at the NREL. I think the overly analytical thing to do is to wait until the loss in efficiency meets the discount in price, and then purchase. but you know what? There MUST be a certain amount of efficiency in being an early adapter and saving lots of money and green house gas emissions by installing them right away, instead of waiting until they’re perfected.
Here’s an interesting article about a recent thin-film solar installation at the writer’s workplace. A good summary of the advantages of thin film solar is here. Are you totally into it yet? Home Power is a great magazine resource. It used to be free to download, but it looks like it’s entirely subscription based now. It’s still one of the best.
Do you own a home? Are you able to make larger investments like this?
Photo from flickr user Clearly Ambiguous via creative commons license.
Topics: Home | 6 Comments »
we looked into the solar option last year for our house. the consultant that came to the house told us that our roof was not oriented ideally AND we had too many trees nearby. in other words: not enough sun on the roof. his comments were related to the NJ rebate for solar panels (which i think went away) and how our house would not be approved because the efficiency of the panels did not meet a certain minimum (can’t remember that number – sorry).
so, we talked about putting up the panels anyway … at our own expense. that is as far as we’ve gotten but i think the discussion should open back up with this thin film solar idea. as stated above, part of the ‘problem’ with the solar panels is the structural component of the install. solar films … i’ll get on the roof and do that myself!!!
as for other items … we will buy the most efficient refrigerator that we can find with the kitchen remodel. and we put in this nifty fan that transfers hot air from our vaulted-ceiling great room to the bedroom (winter time heating).
right now, ceiling fans are my new best friend.
did you see the NYTimes story about NJ solar panels and the pains of success? it’s really interesting!
“With oil prices skyrocketing, demand for solar power is booming. And New Jersey, which has used a rebate program to help install more solar panels than any other state but California, is getting burned by its own success.
There is a backlog of more than 700 applications for the rebates, and property owners have to wait months, even years, to get solar panels installed. The program, which is paid for by surcharges on all utility bills, has been shut down several times over the last three years because applications far outpaced rebate money. Some solar installation companies have had to lay off workers while they waited for rebate checks to be sent.
All this has convinced New Jersey regulators that it is time to wean solar energy from public subsidies altogether. The state plans to replace rebates with energy credits that can be bought and sold on the open market. “
ooh, i did not see that article – thanks for posting!
if the efficiency/rebate problem was taken out of the equation, we’d probably be jumping a bit faster to get ours installed (assuming the energy credit trading happened).
very interesting!!
I am not yet ready to cough up $20 K but hope that prices will come down and efficiencies will go up to make PV more attractive. In the meantime the simple purchase of a high-efficiency washer had a major impact in our electric bills.
i love that they made solar panels into thin strips, because that will certainly get more main stream people involved, since it won’t look as clunky…!!!! YAY!
and they’re totally DIY now, too!