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I’m having a solar array put on my roof this week by West Seattle’s own Solar Epiphany, who I got hooked up with through the Blog. (Thanks Blog!)
I checked out three other contractors. Of those, two were somewhat flakey, and the other one was solid but overpriced. Solar Epiphany was competitively priced, wasn’t pushy at all, and impressed me for several other reasons as well, including the following:
1) Solar Epiphany’s owner, Eric Thomas, is very enthused about solar energy (hence the “Epiphany”). For him, it’s not just about making money, it’s about getting more people to go solar. Now if Eric’s presentation had been deficient in any other area, I wouldn’t have been swayed by his enthusiasm alone; this is, after all, a big-ticket item, and I’m going to make the decision based on several factors. But all other things being equal, I’d much rather hire someone who loves and believes in what he’s doing, wouldn’t you?
Eric’s general enthusiasm and great attitude are reflected in everything he does, from the no-pressure solar seminars he gives at his storefront on California, to the way he resolved my last-minute concerns, to the way he made sure I understood the contract thoroughly before we proceeded. (It also didn’t hurt that he’s a computer whiz who could build an Excel spreadsheet from scratch on his laptop computer when I wanted to compare among several cost-benefit ratios for various solar panel configurations.)
2)Considering Eric’s business philosophy, it’s no surprise that solar is his only business. Two other companies I contacted were home heating companies that had recently taken up solar as a sideline. There’s nothing wrong with that, but again, all other things being equal, I’d rather go with the company that does only one thing and does it well.
3) Solar Epiphany is a West Seattle business. Somehow, even this makes me feel better. About a year ago, when I first contacted Eric, he drove me around to half a dozen West Seattle homes where he’d done installations. At that time, we talked with a couple of these homeowners personally, and a year later, when I made the final decision on my own purchase, I felt better about it for having seen installed examples of Eric’s work and having talked with his customers face to face.
Originally, I was going to do an in-depth Blog piece on solar in West Seattle and was going to use some of Eric’s other customers as the basis for that story. But since deciding to get my own system, I think I’ll just write my up own experience instead. So I’ll be interviewing myself and reporting on myself’s experiences as the work progresses.
I’ll also be taking questions from the audience.
In the meantime . . . may the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be always in your turban, and may the sun shine warmly upon your roof.
–David
I’d love to get solar–it would work for my house. But (and isn’t there always a but?), I wonder what the payback period is?
JayDee, my friend, that is a great question. It is, of course, the FIRST question everyone interested in solar should be asking themselves. However, it is not the only question.
In my case, solar does not, in fact, make great economic sense. In the first place, we are living in Seattle, which is not the sunniest of climes. In the second place, I have a west-facing roof. In the third place, we’ve already got a source of cheap, mostly clean energy from Seattle City Light, which, in its visionary perspective, got us ALL hooked up with hydroelectric power over a hundred years ago!!!
(Amazing, uplifting video: http://tinyurl.com/power-of-snoqualmie)
Finally, I’m doing a partial install, by which I mean that I’m only covering a part of my roof. It will be thirteen panels in all and will be on the west-facing roof only. This is estimated (conservatively) to supply only 20% of my annual electricity needs. On the other hand, I have an all-electric house, with electric heat pump, water heater, stove, dryer, etc., so 20% of that is still significant.
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When calculating payback, you have to figure in at least three numbers:
- The amount of the federal tax credit you get (currently at 30% of the system cost.)
- How much electricity you’ll be generating for your own use, and the dollar value of that electricity.
- The incentive money you get paid by the State of Washington for producing solar energy. (The base rate is $0.15 per kilowatt hour (kWh) and goes up, depending on how much of your system is “made in Washington.”) Note: You get the incentive money for every kWh you generate, whether you use it yourself or send it back to the grid. The kWh incentive will expire in nine years, but I’ll be surprised if the Legislature doesn’t extend that.
With my particular configuration, payback time will be long, at least twenty years. At that point, all my solar power will be free. On the other hand, my panels will be producing less energy by then (output diminishes with age) and so will I. On the other other hand, the cost of electricity will probably also have risen somewhat.
I could have gone with all made-in-Washington equipment, covered my entire roof, and brought the payback time down by several years. I chose not to go that route, however, because the start-up price was too steep. I was originally going to go with a minimal system (just a couple of panels and the wiring) but decided to go beyond that. For me, one of the strengths of Solar Epiphany, was Eric’s willingness to do that kind of system — if that’s what I wanted. Of course Eric can help you compare payback times, as I’m sure any solar company would. The difference between Eric and some of the other outfits is that Eric will not focus exclusively on that, and he will not try to nudge you into getting the biggest possible system in order to make the most money off you.
Bottom line on payback: I’m not doing solar to save money. I’m doing solar because I like it better than letting my money sit in a bank at < 1% interest. I’m doing solar because I want to see my electric meter spinning backwards on a sunny summer day.
But mostly, I’m doing solar because I want to reduce my carbon footprint* and support people like Eric, while simultaneously casting a no-confidence vote in the Enrons and BPs of the world.
I guess you could say it’s my little way of stickin’ it to the man.
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*OK, so City Light’s already hydro-electric, right? So I didn’t have a big carbon footprint anyway. BUT . . . each kWh I don’t use or send back to the grid is a kWh City Light can SELL to some other supplier that might otherwise have to burn coal. Ergo, I’m helping OTHER folks reduce THEIR carbon footprints.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
My new system is finally* on line and boy, was it ever a good day to be on solar. I’ve been watching my power meter run backwards today, for the first time in its long life. Ha! You should have seen me, switching appliances on and off and running outside to see what the meter was doing.
You know, it’s funny. I’ve always thought of myself as an underachiever, never thought I’d be able to contribute a single watt to humanity. But look at me now. I’m not just making watts, I’m making KILOWATTS!!
Eighteen kilowatt hours so far today, as a matter of fact.
You know, my high school civics teacher, Mrs. Daubenburger, would have been so surprised to see how things turned out for me. Looks like you were wrong, doesn’t it Mrs. D? I’m not a total drain on society after all!
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Photos and more attention-seeking behavior to come . . .
—DP
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*There was a snag in the permitting process with Department of Planning and Development (DPD). I have a special electrical service panel that allows me to lock myself out from the grid and power my house from a portable back-up generator. Because of this, Eric’s crew had to hook my solar system into the “line side” of my service connection (i.e., before the juice gets to my house) and this is something DPD hasn’t seen in practice before, even though it’s allowed in special circumstances like mine.
DP’s Solar Install Slide Show
Photo 1: “Hi. My name’s Kyle, and I’ll be your solar installer for today. Would like some ground pepper on that?”
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Photo 2: Fall protection anchors. Also known as “strangulation assistance devices.”
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Photo 3: Quickmount flashing. For supporting the solar panel racks. This doohickey has an 8″ square (?) flange that slides partly under the shingles and is anchored securely by a bolt that’s screwed in from the attic side of the roof.
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Photo 4: Unirac grid with microinverters. Lengths of unirac are attached to the quickmount flashing and then wired up to the microinverters and grounded. With my system, each panel has it’s own microinverter that converts the DC electric current produced by the panel into AC current that can be fed into the house and/or out to the grid. Some systems have a single large inverter that’s installed at ground level.
The inverter is the brains of any photovoltaic operation, and with modern systems the inverters are brainier than ever. Each microinverter has a memory chip that keeps track of all the power produced by its panel. The microinverter sends this data to my home computer (and from there to the inverter company) through a device that plugs into a wall socket and connects with my cable modem via an ethernet jack. With this system and accompanying software, I can get detailed power production reports updated as often as every fifteen minutes. (See Robert2715’s post above.) If any individual panel is not performing as expected, I’ll get an auto-generated e-mail notice from the microinverter company.
Pretty slick.
Not free, but pretty cheap as an add-on feature.
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Photo 5: Panel installation.
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Photo 6: More panel installation. (There were 13 in all.)
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Photo 7: Some kind of junction box doohickey. From here the power goes into my attic and emerges by the City Light power meter.
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Photo 8: My electrical service panel showing cable taps for solar power feed. The dealiebobbers near the top are where the solar system “splices” into the main cable. Once again, this is a “load side” connection, which means that solar power comes into my house on the same wire as the juice from City Light. At the bottom is a “manual interlock” switch that I have to throw if I want to use my manual backup generator to power the house. (That interlock switch is why I had to do a line-side connection. It was at the root of all the fuss with DPD.)
Note: I bought the generator to protect myself from power outages, and so far it’s worked perfectly. Since I bought it, no power outages have occurred.
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The solar install took about two and a half days, with very little inconvenience to me. The power was off for less than an hour while they pulled the meter and connected the clamps. Very tidy and professional-looking work. Thanks, guys!
—David
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