Located in the garage of my fathers home there is a small utility room approximately 10 x 10 ft square.  The utility room houses the duct work for the solar panels the swamp cooler and the hot water heaters and their solar components.  It also has an opening for an 8 x 8 x 8 foot enclosure under the slab of the house that is filled with 1” gravel.  On the exterior structure of the house there are 2 south facing roofs with the bottom level having 32 solar panels and the top level having 14 solar panels and 2 more for solar hot water.  Each panel is 4’ x 8’ and is ducted for an inlet and outlet and the top and bottom through openings in the roof.  In the utility room air is circulated from the panels to the underground storage through duct work that runs through the attics of both levels of his house.  The basic idea is that air is heated in the panels and then used to heat the rocks in the underground storage which are used as thermal mass.  The air blown into the house is heated by those rocks which gradually cool through the night.

My father designed the system and built all of the components himself.  The system works fairly well unless there are multiple days of low or no sun during the winter.  Radiant heaters in each room are used as backup.  All in all the system would probably work better with some adjustments but it will keep the 3200 square foot house at about 65 degrees for most of the winter.  And remember that this was all installed in 1978, 30 years ago and with no moving parts except fans the system will never wear out.  In a cool climate like Albuquerque it is a very sustainable solution.  Where I live in Mesa AZ there is no need to heat a home that way in the winter.

But here in Mesa there is a huge need to cool a home in the summer.  My house in not even close to the size of my father’s home at only 2500 square feet, but my summer electric bill can run over $500.00.  I am on my local utility company’s time of use plan which does save money every month.  I have installed compact fluorescent bulbs in every light in my house including the exterior lights.  I have my hot water heater on a timer so that it only runs from 4am to 8am every day.  We only run our pool filter at night to save money with the time of use plan.  But I work at home so we do cool the house during the day.

I have been looking at PV solar systems for years but I just find it too hard to justify the costs.  My utility company SRP has a huge rebate of $3.00 per watt of system installed up to 10kw and I still find the costs hard to justify.  There are so many factors that play in making a decision to lay out the cash for a PV system that once I start weighing it out it just doesn’t make sense to me.  One of the main factors is that I don’t plan to live in my current location for the rest of my life.  My children are in high school and once they are in college I would like to have the freedom to move to a cooler climate.  I love AZ but the summers are beginning to take their toll after 15 years.  If I did decide to install a system does it then make my home less sellable are less valuable to the market when I do decide to sell?  I know what the people who sell systems say about the subject, “it makes your home more valuable”, but I also know what realtors say about the subject “buyers are afraid of solar power and shy away”.  I grew up in a solar home but I would still be worried about the installation on a home I was thinking about purchasing.  I would be worried about the roofing and what I would have to do when the roofing needed to be replaced.  I definitely would not pay more for a house with a previously installed PV system on the roof.

With a payback of 20+ years it is too hard to justify for the average homeowner and until prices come down I believe there will be very few installed residential PV systems.  And that my friend is why this website exists.  I believe that through a community effort we can cut the cost of installing alternative electrical systems to zero for a number of willing participants throughout the country.  The membership fees collected through this site can pay for residential solar and wind solutions for the people who need them the most.  Together this community can decide where to spend the money for the most benefit for individuals and the world as a whole.  This is our opportunity to make the difference that we want to make in our local communities and the world.  We can help reduce the world’s dependence on fossil fuels and foreign oils.  And to make the world a better place for our children.

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