Going Off Grid with Chris Anderson and Borrego Solar

Nice house if you own a solar energy company and want to show off your products.If the architect had made use of thermal mass walls and floors,  proper window orientation, and partial earth sheltering the PV and solar thermal costs could have been substantially reduced.  Stick framing is one of the worst construction systems ever invented from the point of view of energy efficiency.  Compare it to Durisol block on the basis of fire resistance, temperature stability, mold resistance, occupant health, & sound control

For examples of superior building design look at Nathan Good's zero energy home on the Oregon coast,  (http://www.nathangoodarchitect.com/portfolio/cannonbeach.htm) or the 25 year old RMI Headquarters building by Amory Lovins. (http://www.rmi.org/sitepages/pid389.php)

Richard Elder (ebuildsystems.com)

State of the art indeed!  That and the arrays are well integrated into the roof aesthetically.  I have a few questions:

What drove the decision to go off grid?  How far would utility lines have needed to be extened?  What would that have cost?

The array looks like it is mounted by S-5 clamps to the standing seam roof.  Did you take any extra steps to ensure the roof would withstand extra loads imposed by the solar arrays?

Congratulations!

Great project.  I grew up in Northern NH building houses and decided to take the next step which was to get my masters in Alternative Energy.  Still in the process.     I wanted to know where you got your education and certifications related to all the energy systems of the house, and why the price tag was so high regarding the project?

Geof 

Only 6.75 kw for a 3000 sq. ft. home with a limited solar resource(i.e. Northeast)? Wow... and Cool. Do you not have aircondioning for hot and humid summer days?

I am also curious along with Matt. Did you look into a geothermal heat pump or utilizing a fuel cell? What wind turbine will your neighbor be using?

Who is the manufacture of you metal roof? How much uplift can there really be if the modules are parallel to the plane of the roof offset ~6"? How close are the clips (i.e. clips that attached the metal panel to the trusses) installed on your roof? How much did the metal roof materials cost per sq. ft.?

As for the choice to go off grid, it was a result of the cost and the environmental inpact to the site that we chose to be off grid. The power lines were approximiately 1/3 mile from the site and on the othe side of a wetlands. It would have been approximately 70k to bring power to the site.

The permit process was simple. The local inspector was tough along the way on the house itself, but not the pv or heating system. A sharp man that in the end was very excited to have approved for occupancy his first off grid home in Peterborough.

Solar Integrators like Borrego have put in hundreds of systems and can help those who want to go solar fight the battles with local HOA's and municipalities who oppose or don't understand solar. We have been dong it for years and are committed to gererating change.

It looks like I will go through 6 tons of wood pellets for domestic hot water and heat for the year. At $220 per ton that is $1320 for the year. (this is higher than I expect in the future as we are keeping the house at like 70 degrees b/c of our my new daughter .)

As for the generator and its use as the back up to the electric system, I estimate that the generator will be required to run about 300 hours to both power the house during the winter and to keep the batteries equalized on a monthly basis. The generator consumes about 1 gallon of propane per hour. At $3 per gallon that is $900 for the year.

To follow up on some of the questions:

The size of the pv system and the wind turbine are addressed in the pod cast. To summarize, a friend is building next door and his going to incorporate a wind turbine. The plan is to tie the 2 houses together and share the pv and wind power sources. My array was designed to accomodate this future growth and a shop type space that we will share between us.

There is only one type of batteries: Rolls Surrette. The Sunny Island is the inverter/charge controller.

The two different tanks in the basement are addressed in the pod cast.

Ventilation in the summer is done through natural convection. There is a fresh air intake to bring in fresh air in the winter.

With the desire to use the S5 standing seam clips, the south side of the roof was requried to be screwed to the framing every 16" o.c. in order to have the structural integrity to resist the up lift of the pv system.

This is really an amazing house.  I think there are many different ways to "go green" when building a house and this house represents one particular mind-set.  Personally I find this approach very appealing because the style of the home looks so beautiful to me.

  As for the cost, think of it this way.  There are many people who have the money to build a really nice home and don't even consider the environmental impact.  The name Al Gore comes to mind, but he shouldn't be singled out.  In my neighborhood there are many many million dollar plus homes being put in that don't consider the energy issues at all.  No solar (active or passive), only 4" of fiberglass insulation in the walls, etc.  

    So when someone has the money, it is nice to see it being spent in this way rather than a five car garage or another 1000 sq ft.

    Nice work.

Thanks

John C. Briggs 

LMagic007,

   I am not sure if the $2 to $4 per day refers to the electricity.  My interpretation was that this was the cost of the wood pellets to heat the home.  But I might be wrong.

    But your point is still well taken.  I am getting solar PV (Grid-tied) put on my house and I think that $0.20 to $0.30 per kWh is probably a reasonable estimate of the electricity cost.  

Thanks

John C. Briggs 

Can I Buy Green Power in My State? New Hampshire The table shown here summarizes green power products available in New Hampshire and nationally available renewable energy certificate products.

http://www.eere.energy.gov/greenpower/buying/buying_power.shtml?state=NH

"Nice house if you own a solar energy company and want to show off your products."

As opposed to owning a company selling a different technology using the comments section to shill for his technology?  ;-)

That's not the way to get people to click on your links, mon ami.

....having to think about it, just the normal way to do it. It should be required in every local zoning code and not having it requiring a variance. This would drive down the costs and begin to start this country on a path of energy independence. All these “show homes” are great but that is not where we need to be…

For my view, just to clarify, I think the house is very nice and energy efficient. That is not, and was not MY point. Solar in order to main stream must be shown to be obtainable in the 75K to 150K range, and I don’t mean some little 1KW PV thrown on a standard cookie cutter development house. I mean a well thought out energy efficient home that looks nice in the above range. It is not only possible to do this, but inexcusable not to have this as the standard home being built today. Every house built in this country, unless you are building on the north side of a mountain or in a forest of very tall trees, should have solar thermal DHW. Hands down, not even .....cntd...