From the front lines of your attic - advice, tips and happenings to help homeowners reduce utility bills through efficiency retrofits and renewable energy.
Showing posts with label solar panels for home. Show all posts
Showing posts with label solar panels for home. Show all posts
Congratulations on making a commitment to a more sustainable future by
reducing your electricity consumption with solar electricity.
Here are a list of questions to consider before purchasing solar panels.
What to ask for purchasing solar panels? 1. How do the APS rebates work/ how do the SRP rebates work? 2. How do the state and federal rebates work? 3. Who is the ideal homeowner to purchase solar panels? 4. Who is the ideal homeowner to lease solar panels?
What to ask for a solar lease? 1. Is it a one time payment or monthly payment? 2. Who takes over the lease if I sell the house? 3. How is the lease transferred if I sell the house?
General questions to ask before going solar 1. How long do the solar panels last? 2. How long do the inverters last? 3. What is the warranty for the solar panels and the inverter? 4. What happens if your company goes out of business? 5. What is the timeline for installation of solar? 6. How much does the efficiency of the panel really matter? 7. Why is a southern orientation the best for my western facing roof? 8. Will I be able to monitor my power output? 9. Where the solar panels manufactured? 10. How long has the manufacturer been in business? 10. Do you suggest having a BPI energy audit done on my home?
SRP has come out with great rebate programs and solidified their commitment to 1) energy retrofits upgrades like duct sealing and insulation, 2) renewable energy products like solar panels for electricity and hot water and finally for 3) switching out old appliances. Each of these rebate programs are separate entities that sometimes get confused since they are always changing. For example, SRP solar rebate program has seen better days when solar electricity rebates used to be at $3.00 per watt. Every couple of months for the last 2 years SRP has dropped their solar rebates until the current amount of $1.45 per watt. Now the best and most affordable way to get solar is through a solar lease program that significantly buys down the costs of solar panels.
SRP Home Energy Audit Rebates
Now the hot program is SRP’s and APS’s Home Performance With Energy Star. This is a national Energy Star program to make homes more healthy, comfortable and efficient. APS and SRP adopted the program to ensure a whole-home approach to reducing energy bills while keeping homeowners safe and with better indoor air quality. SRP requires a $99 energy audit be performed on a home to diagnose the causes of high energy bills, uncomfortable rooms or excessive dust. Once the audit is complete a report will be generated using building modeling software that gives cost savings for each upgrade. The SRP rebates will help pay up to $925 (or more if you have two or more AC units) off the costs of the energy retrofit. The rebates for the Home Performance With Energy Star program are broken down below.
Duct sealing 75% off up to $175 per unit. For most homeowners, 20% of their heating and cooling bill is wasted from duct leakage.
Air sealing 75% off up to $250. Air sealing work can be complex as your auditor must determine
Insulation75% off up to $250
Shade screens $0.80 per sq ft up to $250
SRP has a great visual summary of their rebate program here.
$200 for variable speed pool pump. Each pump has to be calibrated to your pool to ensure that it is not over turning your pool. This upgrade will reduce your bills $200 - $350 per year. SRP also provides a $75 rebate for pool timers. For more information on SRP Pool Pump and Timer Rebate see the following link.
Air conditioning systems have become more efficient from federal standards and better technologies. Surprisingly, SRP does not overlap its duct sealing rebates with its air conditioning rebates. With every unit we install, we include a whole home duct seal to maximize the high efficiency AC unit with a properly sealed duct system, otherwise it’s like using an umbrella with holes in it. SRP will help you pay for a higher efficiency AC unit depending on the efficiency ratings. In the AC efficiency world there is a SEER rating, the seasonal energy efficiency ratio, EER rating, the energy efficiency ratio, and HPSF or . In Phoenix, the EER is a more important number to pay attention to because of how hot it gets here. The EER ratio gives a better idea of how an AC will perform under very hot conditions (100 degrees) were the SEER rating gives an idea of performance under milder conditions (89 degrees). SRP recognizes and awards a higher rebate with higher EERs in their AC rebate program.
SRP also has a quality installation standard similar to the post test done for the home energy audits that has to be met when installing heat pumps and furnaces in the Phoenix area also. Only SRP qualified AC companies can apply for their rebate for you, but not all of them will perform a duct testing and sealing upgrade. These rebates and companies are separate from the solar rebates and the home energy audit rebates. All the SRP approved AC companies are required to do a sizing calculation called the Manual J calculation. You should ask to see the results from your own home to ensure this was done. The AC rebate program also includes a check of the refrigerant charge to make sure that the unit is properly charged to manufacture specifications and a check of the air flow. Below is a list of the AC rebates available from SRP.
SEER 15 with EER 12.0 receives $200 SRP rebate
SEER 16 with EER 12.0 receives $300 SRP rebate
SEER 17 with EER of 12.0 receives $400 SRP rebate
All units must be installed by and SRP approved AC contractor.
All contractors must perform a Manual J calculation to properly size the unit (you should verify this since it is not something a typical contractor will do).
All contractors should properly charge the unit and check airflow.
For more information on SRP AC rebates, check out their link here.
SRP solar rebates are divided into solar electricity rebates and solar hot water rebates. Solar electricity for my home was my dream growing up and has proven to be an attractive idea to thousands of homeowners across the Phoenix valley. SRP perhaps did not realize how attractive solar electricity would be since they have lowered their rebate amount dramatically since its inception. As of September 2011, SRP solar electricity rebate is at $1.35 per watt. You can view their current budget and remaining monies available at the link below.
After City and County applications have been approved, SRP does random inspections of the installation. The solar hot water system must be SRCC rated and have proof onsite. The first 5 feet of your hot and cold water piping should be insulated to at least R-2.6. The panels must be un-shaded during the day for the entire year. The SRP solar water heater rebates are currently at $0.45 per kWh of estimated first year savings (based on the OG-300 ratings), up to 505 off the system’s cost. The OG-300 rating system is based on the manufacturer’s rating by the Solar Rating and Certification Corporation. Also important to consider for solar hot water systems is the federal tax credit of 30% off the cost and Arizona state tax credit of $1,000, which makes solar hot water much more attractive. Typical solar hot water rating systems are around 2,890 kWh per year. An example rebate table is shown below.
The Valley of the Sun doesn’t get any better for solar energy production if you are thinking about installing solar panels on your home.In fact, southern Arizona is the best location for solar in the nation.APS, SRP and TEP still provide rebates for solar electricity and producing your own energy to spin your meter backwards is an attractive idea to many homeowners and businesses. But how many solar panels do you need to do so?
Part of the equation is limited to the amount of panels you can fit on your roof, house orientation and external shading and aesthetics.A good southern exposure is ideal for solar power, however solar panels can be west-facing or on a west-facing slope and angled towards the south.Some homeowners want to completely zero out their energy bills for the whole year.Other homeowners go with smaller systems to zero out just their winter energy bills and a lower summer bill.To calculate the size of photovoltaic’s you will need to accomplish either goal you are going to need your electricity bills for the past 12 months.
Once you have that, add all the kWh you used each month for the entire year and divide that by 1.7.The number you get will be the total system size needed to take your annual usage down to zero (if you divide that number by 1,000, you get kW).So let’s say after I added all the kWh’s used for the year and came up with 23,480 kWh/year (a large home).Take 23,480 / 1.7 = 13,812 watts.So I would need 13.8 kW’s of solar panels to completely zero out my energy bills.Now I can go with half of that number (7 kW system) to reduce my bills by approximately half also.
The 1.7 factor is an estimate for only a particular type and efficiency of panel, but it will give you a good idea for starters.If you are a visual person, feel free to contact me and I can send you a spreadsheet where you can enter in your monthly kWh usage, and a nice graph will visually show you what you are spending now on energy bills, and what they would like with a 5 or 10 kW solar electricity system.
For more information visit http://www.dsireusa.org/ to find current APS/SRP or TEP rebates and federal tax incentives for going solar.Visit APS’s website here, SRP’s website here and TEP’s website here for more tips and information.Michael Blue Jay also has a great website and solar calculator here.You can schedule a free site assessment on your home with Green ID to discuss possible options for solar.For certain homes, coupling solar with efficiency upgrades will stretch your dollar spent 30-40% compared to solar alone.
Kitchen appliances can account for up to 15% of your home energy usage and how you choose to cook will impact your energy bill. By following some energy savings tips, you can reduce your bills and here's how.
There is more than one way to skin a cat:
If you took an inventory of all the appliances you use to cook with the list might look something like this: oven, stovetop, slow cooker or crockpot, microwave and toaster oven.
As you can already guess, each of these appliances uses a different amount of energy but what is not so obvious is how much energy each one uses.When you can choose between making a baked potato in the oven or in the microwave, which one uses less energy?How about cooking a soup or stew over the stovetop, or using the slowcooker?Meatloaf in the oven or toaster oven?Just like if you lived in a smaller house, it would take less time to cool the inside of the home with the same sized AC unit than if you lived in a larger house; it takes less energy to heat a smaller space than a larger one.So what would use less energy if you could put that meatloaf in a toaster oven compared to the conventional oven?How much less?You would be cutting your energy use by more than half! (and reducing the temperature in the kitchen as well).
Of course, each appliance is “specialized” to cook certain foods but when you can choose, I encourage you to do so.Below is a table showing the energy costs of various cooking methods.
Other energy saving tips in the kitchen include:
-When using the electric stovetops it is important to match the pan size to the element size, otherwise you will be wasting almost half the heat produced from the element.-The ideal pan also has a concave bottom to maximize the conduction in the pan. -A pressure cooker will also cook stovetop items faster and with less energy because the built-up pressure drops the boiling point of water thus cooking the food faster. -Cleaning your appliances increases their efficiency. -Avoid peeking into the oven while baking. -Double portions when using the oven to save energy on cooking. -Remove foil on the bottom of ovens to improve air circulation.
The 2011 tax incentive is greatly reduced compared to last year, however there are several efforts to extend residential energy efficiency credits for measures such as water heaters, heat pumps and windows that are no longer available. Green Parent Chicago gives some great resources to keep up to date on the tax credits and I've posted a 2011 federal tax credit summary for energy efficiency improvements here as well.
There is no lack of variety of housing types in the City of Phoenix.Phoenix neighborhoods include the idyllic Arcadia District, the lively Camelback Corridor, the newly formed Lightrail Corridor and the beautiful historic district to name a few.In addition to a great weatherization program, The City of Phoenix has developed a new Energy Efficiency program, Energize Phoenix.The City of Phoenix is offering huge cash incentives to make your home more energy efficient. Energize Phoenix is a large scale rebate program for residents who live along the Lightrail Corridor. Residents receive APS-matching rebates from the City of Phoenix and for qualifying residents, a 60% Federal grant with no upper limit is available to fund efficiency upgrades like energy efficient AC units and furnaces, duct sealing, air sealing, shade screens and insulation. If you live along the Lightrail Corridor, Energize Phoenix is making going green as easy with little upfront money, reduced utility bills and a more comfortable home. There has never been a better time to go green
Program Overview:
1. Have a home energy audit performed to identify the largest sources of energy waste.
2. Your Energize Phoenix approved contractor will walk you through each recommendation, its costs and offsetting rebates and cash incentives available through APS and Energize Phoenix.
3. Complete and submit the Energize Phoenix paperwork and your Energize Phoenix contractor will complete any work you requested and facilitate the rebates on your behalf.Rebate Overview:Rebates are available upon 6-8 weeks of completion of install and include the following.
Yes, even the desert gets cold at night. Since it can get chilly enough to wear a sweater during a Phoenix evening, here are some things you can do around home to save energy, improve your indoor air quality and be comfortable enough to walk around barefoot, even in the dead of the winter.
Warm air raises and can escape out the chimney of a fireplace. A chimney pillow can be installed in the flue to stop heated air from escaping during the winter. Just be sure to leave the tag on and remove the pillow come summer. Also check around potential leakage “hot spots” such as old windows, doors, plumbing penetrations under sinks and electrical outlets. By replacing old weatherstripping around the doors or caulking around the windows or plumbing penetrations you can effectively keep your conditioned air where it belongs, inside. Check the local hardware store to find outlet sealers to add a little insulation behind light switches too.
For Phoenix and central Arizona, the DOE recommends at least 12-inches of blown-in cellulose or an R-38 value to slow the transfer of cold air into the home. If your attic has fiberglass batt insulation, it should be in contact with the attic floor at all times to work properly.
A seasonal tune-up may be in order if not done annually. If the temperatures will never reach the temperature set-point the HVAC system may be low on refrigerant or something else may be awry. Best to have it checked by a professional.
During the Phoenix winters, solar gain through windows can help significantly warm the home, lowering energy bills from decreased heat use. Shade screens can be unclipped and stored until it comes time for summer.
Install CO detectors if you have a fireplace or gas appliances 3-6 feet from the ground. Use a bubble solution to check for gas leaks around fireplaces, water heaters, furnaces and feeder lines. Be sure that the furnace or water heater has a good clearance to allow for fresh air intake and that they are not located in the same room as a dryer.
