Living “Green”: 1 year later
It’s been one year since we moved into the “green” house that we had built. For the most part, it’s been about what I expected, other than perhaps I thought the solar panels would pay back a bit more from the energy company. For the most part, I’d say we haven’t changed our lifestyle too much. We still use the same electrical devices at the same rates, etc. One thing I did notice, however, is that since the whole house is now filled with CFL (Compact Fluorescent Lights), we need a whole lot more lights on just to be able to get the same equivalent light that we did before (and this was built into the design). I can’t help but wonder if the CFL savings is a myth.
At any rate, I do notice that the house we are in is a lot more efficient in terms of heating and cooling (we have spray-foam insulation and passive solar design), but of course that comes with one small PITA tradeoff too: it’s difficult to add new electrical outlets, etc. on the outside walls (and this is something I think everyone who builds new wants to do since it’s impossible to know exactly where you want them.) Despite that, it seems the spray foam + passive solar design is much more efficient in the summer than it is in the winter. In other words, the house stays cooler in the summer, whereas in the winter, I feel the house isn’t any warmer for a given thermostat setting than our previous house which was fairly poorly insulated. I don’t however, have proof of that.
To wrap things up, I thought I’d share two pictures. The first is a screen grab of our electrical usage and the second is a screen grab of our energy production from a 3 KWH active solar installation.
Our house is located in central North Carolina and is sited to maximize solar exposure (although, we still have 1 large tree that blocks some evening sun.) As you can see, our panels offset somewhere between 15% and 40% (give or take) of our energy use. We paid $27K up front for the solar panels and approx. $6K for a solar water heater. This year, we got about $15K (not entirely remembering here) back in Federal and State tax credits on that system and will receive a few thousand more next year from NC taxes since you can’t take the whole credit in a single year. I believe I estimated we’d pay about $10K total for the system when it was all said and done, which seems to be fairly accurate. We also received approximately $700 this year from NC Green Power as part of a neighborhood program that provides incentives for green energy production (5 year program) and another $100 from our energy supplier as part of their electricity buyback program.
Looking forward, we’d like to get a few chickens for both pest control and eggs, but first need to change the HOA by-laws to allow them, since, despite the fact that we live in a green neighborhood on large lots out in the country, our developer thinks they might deter a potential buyer. We also put in a garden this year for the first time since moving to NC (we always had one in NY) so we’re really looking forward to our own fresh food. Now, I just need to get that compost pile going again.
As you can no doubt see, living green means different things for different people. For us, I feel our setup works well. Sure, we could make a few more sacrifices here and there, but overall, I think it’s a step in the right direction.