Queen of Green - Start Big

Warning: This is a lot of information! It is simplified and distilled to the most important points, but it is still a lot of information. So read on only if your brain is not too full at the moment. Wouldn’t want any exploding heads…

Want to have a miniscule-to-nonexistent power bill? Want to rid yourself of all ties to the power company? Or perhaps there is no power company where you live or are going to live and you need to be self sufficient. These things are possible with existing technology.

There are two fundamentally different routes mentioned above. In the first, you are still part of the grid, and are still a customer of your power company but use it only as a back up. By the way, “grid” is the overall name for the impressive system which delivers electricity to our homes and businesses. Your power

company owns a part of the grid, but the grid is far larger than any one power company. The second option involves you becoming your own power company and no longer being part of the grid. One thing about getting divorced from the power company and going it on your own, you suddenly acquire a deep appreciation for every bit of electricity you use.

At the moment, many don’t really understand how electricity works (click here for an explanation), and view it merely as a given part of life; something that magically comes out of the wall when needed. Once upon a time, electricity was so cheap we barely gave it a thought. Now the price of electricity can be a major part of a household budget. The Queen thinks this is an excellent thing. Why? Because if it is too cheap, we won’t give it a thought… we won’t think about the environmental consequences. With higher prices, we think about what we use. If not because of the environmental impact, then because of the impact on our pocketbooks. The important thing is that we think about it and consider how much electricity we use.

Have you ever looked at your power bill in detail? Do you know how many kilowatt hours you use per month? Do you know what a kilowatt hour is? If not, don’t worry, many don’t. A kilowatt hour or kwh is merely the measure used by the power company to calculate how much electricity you are using so you can be charged in a consistent manner. Some power companies send detailed bills, some don’t. If you don’t get a detailed bill, call your power company or go online to find out how to get the details. Like? Well... how many kwh do you use per month? Which month shows the highest usage? What are you truly paying per kwh? Valuable information!

So, you’d like to look at the possibility of going for it. Here is what is involved:

For either of the options (divorce the power company or stay on the grid), you’ll be doing some important things.

1) Conserving to the greatest degree possible.
2) Using energy efficiency to the greatest degree possible.
3) Adding electricity generating systems to your business or home.

Conserving is pretty obvious. Turn off the lights when you’re not using them, unplug your hairdryer when you’re not using it, install internal solar light tube systems and take the old frig out of the garage if you have one.

Energy efficiency could mean installing a solar water heater, considering geothermal for heating and cooling and using stand alone external solar lights for night time lighting. For the benefit of your cooling system, you’d have the ductwork inside the air conditioned space of your house and if you don’t have geothermal, an air conditioner unit with a wonderfully high SEER number. Then either awnings or the overhang of your roof calculated so that the summer sun would be kept out for the longest period possible. For heating, you’d use something other than electricity .

Super efficient appliances would be next. For instance, old refrigerators were real hogs, using up to 1500 kwh per year. Now many efficient models are down to 800 kwh per year or less, and the real champ – SunFrost – uses about 300 kwh per year. Youza! If you were really serious about this, you’d then get a super efficient washer, use something other than electricity for cooking, and hang your clothes out to dry (an electric dryer is SUCH a hog.) After all, the best electricity is that which you never use.

If you did all this, your electric company might actually be pleased (it can be a struggle to keep up sometimes), but it does beg the question… what if everyone did it?

So in our mind experiment, you’ve now whittled your electricity use down to the bare minimum. This is what we mean about being aware of every watt you use.

The next step would be installing your own electricity generating system. Here are the obvious choices:

Photovoltaic (PV) system

And

Wind Turbine
Let’s start with a Photo Voltaic or PV system. Here’s a simple diagram showing how it works:

A photo voltaic system is such a thing of beauty. Lovely blue or gray panels up on your roof, converting sunlight directly into electricity. Put a system on your roof, and the panels are guaranteed for 25 years. At the 25 year mark, they are guaranteed to be still operating at 80% of their original capacity… so it’s not as if they won’t work anymore! In fact, panels can keep operating for 40 years or more. As the price of electricity goes up, your system will keep producing, thus increasing the overall value or your investment.

Right about now, I’ll just go ahead and answer the main question I hear. “If I install a 5 kilowatt system on my house, how much electricity will I generate?” The answer depends on the amount of sunshine your location receives per day. Let’s say you live in Wichita Kansas and are thinking about a PV system. Charts showing the insolation level (which means the amount of sun shining on the area) indicate that for a fixed array installed on your roof (fixed array means installed on your roof and not swiveling on a pole) you’ll have about 4.3 hours of sun per day during the month of February, and 6.8 during July with an average of 5.2 hours per day. A 5 kw system running for 5.2 hours per day will yield about 20-26 kwh per day average with less in February, and more in July. The lower number is because there is a small amount of loss (20% or so, called the derate factor) due to wire run and the conversion from DC to AC. Think you could get your daily usage down that low? If you did all the things we’ve discussed thus far, you might just be able to.

Installing a PV system is a big decision because the upfront price is steep. The good news is, “green” is “in” at the moment, and incentive programs abound (alas, they also change constantly.) Here are some numbers intended to give a very general idea of what might be possible.

- General estimate for installation cost is $8.25-$11 per watt. In other words, a 5 kilowatt system (5,000 watts) would be $41,250 - $55,000 up front.
- Fear not, for many states and utilities offer juicy rebates. Let’s pick a “state” which offers a $4 per watt rebate. If you purchased a system at the lower end of that price range, the rebate would bring your price down to $21,250. Rebates and credits change constantly (go to www.dsireusa.org to find out what is available at the moment.) For the sake of our calculations, let us say there is also a 30% tax credit on the remaining amount (see www.dsireusa.org for updates on rebates.) In other words, when all was said and done, that 5 kw system would cost approximately $14,875. Pretty good!