beausoleil

Beausoleil is solar powered -- almost!

Considering that the name of our company means 'beautiful sun' in French, we probably should have installed a photo-voltaic system at our house years ago.  Unfortunately, the economics of these systems have only recently been attractive enough  to merit doing so, thanks to federal, state and City of San Francisco subsidies.

We started looking for a vendor in late 2007, and quickly decided to work with Solar City. The company, based in Foster City, is just two years old but has already become one of the biggest providers of  photo-voltaic installations in the U.S.  Solar City's founders and chairman are wealthy Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and environmentalists, so they seem to have the capital necessary to build  a solid business quickly, as well as a great deal of financial and technical acumen. 

Other local vendors you might want to consider actually have more experience, dating back well before the current energy crisis, include Sun Light and Power of Berkeley, and Occidental Power of San Francisco. There are any number of other players in the industry, new and old, with a variety of technical and financing packages, so shopping is definitely in order.

We first looked at purchasing a large system -- enough for most of our power needs -- at a cost of around $22,000. This idea was quickly scaled back to a smaller system which would just make up for the most expensive 'tier' of PG&E's rate structure. This smaller alternative was going to cost about $15,000. 

While we hemmed and hawed about these rather large sums Solar City came up with a lease program, where ownership is retained by them and we rent the system, not unlike a car leasing program.  This system allows the vendor to make better use of the State tax credits, which are unlimited for commercial systems but limited for residential systems. This, along with the San Francisco tax credits which kicked in thereafter, brought the price down to a token $29 initial cost and (coincidentally) $29 a month lease cost based on our current PG&E electric bills of $120 per month.  For complete financial specifications of our system, see  Download boles_solarlease_2.87kW_NEW.pdf We are told that unless your electric bill is upwards of $100 per month, a photovoltaic system may still not be economic.  We encourage you to contact the vendors and ask for a free on-site evaluation, which they are generally happy to provide.

We signed the deal and proceeded with the installation process.  This began with a site visit by a technician, who confirmed the layout of the roof, checked the roof structure to make sure it was strong enough, and reviewed the electrical system.  He sent this data to the engineering department, which produced a set of construction drawings for approval by the city building department. A couple of weeks later the actual installation crew arrived one morning in their bright green van.  Setting up the mounting frames, mounting the inverter and running the conduit took the first day; the panels were installed, the wiring run and everything connected and tested on the second day. The last task was a quick paint job on the conduit to make it blend in with our walls. The final test, done at 5:30 in the afternoon on a very gray day, showed a not very inspiring 144 watts being generated...but we have faith that this will be vastly improved  under better circumstances.

There were a few glitches in the planning and installation process.  The exact layout of the panels was the subject of several discussions and revisions, and then didn't turn out exactly as planned anyway; likewise with the location of the inverter and cut-off switch.  The biggest glitch was economic. We were notified after signing the lease that the City's $6,000 subsidy payment, payable to Solar City, may be 1099'd to us as income.  Needless to say this came as quite a shock , about 2000 volt-dollars, I would estimate, in completely non-scientific terms. After we came to and took a look at the bigger financial picture, however, it still seemed like a good deal, and the tax implications are still not certain.

The city inspection was passed last week; we are now only awaiting PG&E's inspection and installation of a new meter before turning the system on.  Of course, I could turn it on right now, it is wired and ready to go...such a beautiful sunny day, so may kilowatts going unused...hmmm.

          

Panel Installation

Inverter and cut-off switch

Solar Power Systems -- Is now the right time?

So, we had replaced our old light bulbs with compact fluorescents, nagged the kids about turning off the lights, installed extra insulation, turned down the thermostat, bought a Prius.  What else could we do to fight global warming?  It was time to take the next step – direct use of solar energy.

By the end of September, 2008, a roof-mounted solar photo-voltaic system at our San Francisco home should be generating much of the electricity our household uses, with a net savings of about $35 per month on our electric bill.  The best part: our total up-front cost was $29, thanks to currently generous federal, state and San Francisco subsidies. Over its lifetime the system will save the equivalent of 135,000 pounds of CO2 emissions, alleviating a major source of global warming.  Solar energy – touted since the 1970’s as an alternative to the environmental problems of fossil fuels – has finally become economic for the average homeowner.

Even in foggy coastal areas, much of the Bay Area is well suited to making use of the sun’s energy for generation of electricity (solar electric or photo-voltaic systems).  Our generally mild and dry climate and clean air allows for plenty of energetic sunshine. Because photo-voltaic systems generate power using light (not heat), fog only cuts down about 10% of their efficiency.  The cooler temperatures that accompany fog actually improve performance, as photo-voltaic cells work best at cold temperatures.

Photo-voltaic systems generally involve the use of flat, dark colored, roof-mounted panels, to absorb solar energy. To be most effective, the panels generally want to face the south to southwest or even west, at an angle of about 30 degrees from horizontal, and be largely free from shading by nearby trees or buildings.  The great majority of homes have a large area of roof that fits these criteria. Flat roofs work too, since panels can be installed on racks to raise their angle.  Where the panels are located on sloped roofs they generally are installed on racks a few inches above the roofing material, to allow ventilation for cooling.  The racking allows for easy removal and replacement of panels if maintenance on the roof is needed, and minimizes structural penetrations of the roofing.

The panels themselves are composed of semi-conducting silicone wafers – essentially the same material that computer chips are made of – to turn sunlight directly into electricity.  The panels produce direct current (DC) electricity, so an electronic inverter is also needed to change the electricity into the AC current that our houses use.  In rural areas, expensive batteries are sometimes necessary to store electric power so as to be “off grid”; here in the Bay Area it makes more sense to feed the power back into the electric grid.  The power generated reduces the electric meter reading, sometimes even making it run backwards.  “Time-of-use” meters are also installed, so that energy generated in the afternoon, when power is most valuable, is credited at a higher rate.  Conversely, power used at night and in the early morning, when general usage is less, is billed at lower rates.

Typically, systems are sized to generate enough power to offset about 60% of a homeowner’s electric bill, with the remaining amount falling under the least expensive, lowest tier in PG&E’s rate structure. A typical household needs between 200 and 300 square feet of panels. The inverter, a cut-off switch, a new time-of-use meter and electric conduits to connect everything comprise the rest of the system. The life span of these systems is expected to be 25 to 30 years, with the inverter probably needing to be replaced once during this period. Very little maintenance is required.

Government subsidies have never been better for these systems. The Federal government currently offers a 30% Investment tax credit (capped at $2,000 for residential installations, subject to limitations imposed by the alternative minimum tax) and accelerated depreciation. The California Solar Initiative is offering incentives up to $250 per watt of installed capacity, depending on system parameters.  And San Francisco is, while it lasts, portioning out $1,500,000 for residential installations, up to  (see Solar Subsidy)

An Inconvenient Opportunity For Change

A few years ago our family watched ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, Al Gore’s movie about climate change.  Although skeptical in the past, we were pretty much convinced by the movie of the reality and importance of climate change.  It seems that environmentalism is becoming more than a ‘soft’ aesthetic or spiritual issue, but a matter of life and death, poverty or survival for millions of people.

Our eight year old son was particularly affected.  Ever since our viewing, he has been intently concerned about green issues.  He wonders when we drive past a low lying area if it will be under water when he grows up; he gets mad at gas guzzling cars; he makes sure our lights are turned off when they’re not in use.  We all agreed we needed to do something in our own lives to help make a difference.

More lately we attended the West Coast Green Building convention, and got fired up once again to do something in our own lives to help fight global warning, environmental degradation, and – who knows – maybe American foreign policy disasters in the pursuit of energy resources.  With our office in our home and being (mostly) residential architects, we naturally think first about our own house and the neighborhood it shares (Westwood Park on the southwest side of San Francisco). Think globally, act locally, as the old saying goes. One of the nice things about global warning, we tell our kids, is that every single person, acting in their own private lives, can affect the outcome.  Indeed, it may well be said that nothing except individuals making individual choices and changing individual behavior will be able to reverse climate change. 

That being said, we can also work on a neighborhood or community basis. 

Thirteen changes to think about for your property and your neighborhood:

1. Install compact fluorescent lamps or other high efficiency lighting at every opportunity.
2. Turn off computers when not in use and minimize energy ‘vampires’ – devices that passively draw power all of the time.
3. Install a solar water heating system.  This should pay for itself in reduced energy bills is 7-10 years and save the equivalent amount of carbon emissions as taking a car off of the road.Install a grid-tied photo-voltaic electric generating system on your house.  Sell power to PG&E!.
4. Insulate your house. Many of our homes, thirty five years after the first energy crisis, have little or no insulation.  Do the attic at least, and the floor over the garage; do the walls if you can. Install air infiltration gaskets on the electric outlets at exterior walls.
5. Replace (at least) the more dilapidated of your old windows with  double pane, wood or fiberglass framed windows. (Don’t throw away serviceable or beautiful custom windows, however)
6. Buy Energy Star appliances when you need new equipment.  Read the labels and compare. Old furnaces, refrigerators and dryers can be tremendous energy hogs.
7. Sign up for PG&E’s ‘Climate Smart’ program or buy power from a ‘green’ energy producer to help mitigate the carbon load of your power use for a small additional charge.
8. Consider the possibility of drying clothes on a line.  It worked in 1920, why not today?
9. Plant a street tree.  Trees suck up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and help regulate the local temperature.
10. Build a ‘graywater’ system to use wastewater from your lavatories, showers and laundry to irrigate your garden.  It’s legal and practical.

In your neighbood:

1. Make use of whatever bits of public land are available in your neighborhood for a community gardens. How about a neighborhood composting facility?
2. Start a neighborhood carpool program.
3. Organize a system to solicit neighborhood group pricing for goods or services? Many solar vendors have group pricing, for instance.

Welcome

Welcome to the newly revised website and blog for Beausoleil Architects!

We would like this blog site to become a resource where people can share information, ideas and experiences about green building and sustainability, particularly for the single family residential industry.

We will be doing research on various topics for our own new LEED certified and Green Point Rated house to be built in Pacifica, California,  over the next year and want to share that data and the decision making process with you.  We will also continue to remodel our current home in San Francisco, which recently includes the installation of a solar photovoltaic system.  Details of our system installation and performance will be posted regularly to test its performance in our foggy climate.

Please feel free to leave your comments and become a part of our green research network!