(Great article except the cover photograph was a bit unfortunate as it
perpetuates the stereotype attached to solar electricity as still being for
backyard inventors. It would have been different if the work out bike Ed is
sitting was modern looking and powering a TV. That would have made it the
next best thing to a home gym. The solar industry needs to work on its
image.
Remy C.)


Lighting Up a House With the Sun's Power
New York Times
Apr 8, 2001

Author: Christine Woodside

Abstract:

Judi and Lou Friedman, who had a solar-powered hot water heater for years,
decided to use the sun completely and installed a solar electrical system at
their home in Canton last year. They are still connected to the electrical
grid as a backup. In Bridgewater, Edward Witkin has gone cold turkey: He
uses no electricity at all. He built a log house for his wife, Ellen
Shrader,
and their two young daughters and used solar-powered tools to do it.

When the goal is to go solar, ''the solar should be the last thing people
think about,'' said Mr. Witkin, who runs the Bridgewater office of Solar
Works, a company that provides solar panels and related equipment. ''With
all this crisis in California, there's very little talk about conservation.
Conservation doesn't mean changing our lifestyle.''

Edward Witkin powers his house, top, completely with solar. Above, he has
installed bicycle pedals next to his battery supply and can generate 50 to
100 watts as the pedals spin the shaft of a 24-volt generator. (Photographs
by Joseph Kugielsky for The New York Times)(pg. 1); The woodburning stove in
the Bethlehem house of [Robert Maddox], left, who also has a solar hot
water system.; Edward Witkin of Bridgewater, above, installed solar panels
on a well to power a driveway light. At right, part of his hot water system.

(Photographs by Joseph Kugielsky for The New York Times) (pg. 4)
Copyright New York Times Company Apr 8, 2001

Full Text:

PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER installed solar panels at the White House to heat hot
water for a kitchen, but President Reagan had them removed shortly after he
took office.

That's about how it has gone for the solar revolution, a technology that
holds much promise, but hasn't had much impact. Still, despite the high
costs of installing such a system, a tiny group of Connecticut homeowners
use the sun for their electricity and hot water and have shown that with
conservation, the sun, even in often gloomy New England, is enough.

In Bethlehem, the electric meter outside Robert Maddox's house runs very
slowly because of his solar hot-water heater, and he's saving money to
install a solar electrical system next year. His goal is to have the meter
go in reverse -- to sell his own sun power back to the electric companies.

Judi and Lou Friedman, who had a solar-powered hot water heater for years,
decided to use the sun completely and installed a solar electrical system at
their home in Canton last year. They are still connected to the electrical
grid as a backup. In Bridgewater, Edward Witkin has gone cold turkey: He
uses no electricity at all. He built a log house for his wife, Ellen
Shrader,
and their two young daughters and used solar-powered tools to do it.

''Psychologically, it's very restful and fulfilling. There's something very
natural about it,'' said Mrs. Friedman, chairwoman of People's Action for
Clean Energy, a group that promotes solar energy. Mrs. Friedman and her
husband have had a solar hot-water system since 1976 and last year installed
photovoltaic panels to convert sun into electricity.

Economically, solar isn't so fulfilling. Solar users all understand that
they could get more power for less money through the electrical grid. In
bald financial terms, power made with fossil fuel or nuclear power remains
much cheaper than using backyard sun to power hot water and electricity. One
energy consultant, Joel Gordes who runs Environmental Energy Solutions in
Colebrook, estimates that solar electrical systems provide $140 worth of
electricity per year.

Then there is the cost of the equipment itself. For a typical house, the
photovoltaic panels and related equipment for electricity, combined with the
solar hot-water equipment, cost about $35,000. This means that owners of
solar systems will recoup their investments between 15 and 20 years after
these systems go on line.

But solar power users said they value solar energy for reasons other than
economics. They said it's important to them that they have decreased their
dependence on fossil fuel to just the small tanks of propane for their
stoves and to back up their water heaters. They are proud that their energy
use doesn't pollute air or water, and that it uses a natural resource,
light, that comes directly to them, quietly.

''If the sun comes out here, you almost need sunglasses in here,'' Mr.
Maddox said, as he looked out of his south-facing windows.

''You can do this, and be comfortable, and you don't have to give up the
conveniences of the 21st century,'' he said. ''Ultimately, with the energy
choices I've made, I'm convinced there will be a time when I can sell power
back to the grid.''

Even in New England, there is enough sun to power a house, the solar users
said, but only if people cut their energy use to a fraction of what most
people consume. Today, the average household in Connecticut uses 716
kilowatt hours per month, or 8,592 a year. A typical photovoltaic system
produces an estimated 1,400 kilowatt hours a year, or about 16 percent of
average use.

Anyone serious about going solar must think differently about life.

''Conservation is the basis of it all,'' Mr. Gordes said. ''It makes zero
sense to go out and buy an expensive photovoltaic system unless you're
taking conservation steps.''

When the goal is to go solar, ''the solar should be the last thing people
think about,'' said Mr. Witkin, who runs the Bridgewater office of Solar
Works, a company that provides solar panels and related equipment. ''With
all this crisis in California, there's very little talk about conservation.
Conservation doesn't mean changing our lifestyle.''

Homeowners who have made the jump to partial or total solar energy use
insisted that it's easy to get by on less energy. From their refrigerators
to their televisions to their laundry machines, these mavericks love to show
off the changes they have made in basic routines.

Mr. Maddox, a former state representative who grew up on a dairy farm
adjacent to his Bethlehem house, doesn't own a clothes dryer. He hangs his
laundry in his extremely sunny living room in the winter and on a
clothesline outdoors in the summer. When he decided to build the passive
solar house, Mr. Maddox found a used solar hot-water system that cost $740
(a new one would probably have cost about $6,000). He hopes to invest about
$10,000 in photovoltaic panels next year to supply his electricity, and he's
getting ready now by conserving every bit he can.

He banished electricity-gobblers such as coffee makers, instead heating
water on his propane stove and pouring it through a drip filter into a
thermos. Mr. Maddox also follows a personal rule to cut every ''phantom
load'' of electricity he can find. No computer monitor sits neglected.
He unplugs the television and any appliance like it that continues to draw
power when it's off.

Installing the equipment himself, Mr. Witkin and his wife spent $27,000 a
decade ago, and he anticipates it will be paid off through a lack of
electricity bill sometime in the next few years.

''We're definitely in the extreme,'' Mr. Witkin admitted. He said the reason
he never hooked up the house to the power grid, though many solar users keep
it as a back-up, was that ''I was concerned that if did that we would rely
too much on the electricity.''

Mr. Witkin has to spend some time most days putting a little muscle into
running the household. He might start his morning by reaching out of the
skylights to brush off snow or debris from the photovoltaic panels that
cover the southern slope of his family's roof. More panels face the front
door on the other side of the building.

Over the winter, as an experiment, Mr. Witkin installed a set of what look
like bicycle pedals next to the house battery supply. Anyone in the family
who wants a little exercise can generate 50 to 100 watts as the pedals spin
the shaft of a 24-volt generator. The power gets stored in the batteries.

When necessary, he also starts fires in the upstairs wood stove and the
downstairs ''Russian stove,'' which is like a small wood-fired stone
furnace. By evening, his daughters can feel the heat coming up through the
radiant-heat floor tiles as they play with their scooters downstairs. The
tiles generate warmth after sundown with the help of the hot-water system.

The family washes their dishes in a large porcelain double sink instead of a
dishwasher. They run their clothes dryer off propane, and their refrigerator
is a special ''Sun Frost'' model, costing about $2,500, with more insulation
and the heat-generating compressors mounted on top. It uses about a sixth of
the energy of a conventional refrigerator.

Mr. Witkin even devised a solar-powered driveway light. On top of a former
well house roof sits a photovoltaic panel. During the day it collects sun
and funnels it into a battery below. At night, the light glows for several
hours.

Mr. Maddox, the Witkin-Shrader household, and the Friedmans all rely on
compact fluorescent light bulbs, a standard among solar power users. These
use a quarter of the energy of regular bulbs.

The modern solar energy business was born in 1973, when the federal
government began to test systems using photovoltaic panels. Solar energy
systems date to the 1880s, when the first experiments to convert light used
selenium photovoltaic cells. These managed to use only 2 percent of the
available sun. In the 1950's, pure crystalline silicon technology came
along, and
Bell Telephone Laboratories produced a silicon photovoltaic cell that was 11
percent efficient. By the late 1950's, American satellites used solar energy
to power radios.

There are three basic kinds of solar power, all based on simple concepts of
collection and storage. To get electricity, ''photovoltaic'' panels use
silicon to collect sunlight, and a converter turns power into alternating
current, while batteries store energy for later use. Solar hot-water heating
systems -- used by President Carter at the White House and several hundred
homeowners in Connecticut -- use pipes filled with solutions similar to
anti-freeze; they run from the roof to a tank where, like coils, they warm
the water. The third way to use the sun is to draw heat into the house
through south-facing ''passive solar'' buildings, which number into the
thousands here.

From 1979 to 1983, people who bought solar panels and related equipment for
their homes could claim a federal income tax credit, but that incentive has
disappeared. A 1998 Connecticut law makes all solar equipment exempt from
municipal property taxes.

Today, solar energy as a mainstream power source remains on the wish list of
the state government.

The power grid serving southern New England carries power from a combination
of sources. Most of it is oil (44 percent), nuclear energy (30 percent) and
trash incinerators (9 percent). Small percentages of natural gas,
hydroelectric power, and even solar that houses sell back onto the grid,
make up the balance. Several natural gas power plants are proposed to be
built in Connecticut, while nuclear energy is expected to decline.

Michael Cassella, chairman of the Connecticut Energy Advisory Board, which
advises the state on energy issues, said the board wanted solar energy to
become one of several energy sources in the future. The board has asked the
State Legislature to try to make it easier for people to afford solar
energy. They want the state to fund emerging technologies, including wind
and hydroelectric, so they could be made more affordable to the general
public.

''You can't cost-justify a solar installation right now,'' he said. ''We're
going to look at the technology: In terms of public policy, what can we do
not only to encourage it, but to increase the pace of the proliferation of
the technology?''

The mavericks who already use solar suggest that people examine other things
on which they would spend a lot of money, not necessarily money they could
recoup, and then ask themselves if they can afford solar energy.

''People go out and buy an S.U.V. and don't think about the investment,''
Mr. Witkin said.

Captioned as: Edward Witkin powers his house, top, completely with solar.
Above, he has installed bicycle pedals next to his battery supply and can
generate 50 to 100 watts as the pedals spin the shaft of a 24-volt
generator.

(Photographs by Joseph Kugielsky for The New York Times)
(pg. 1);

The woodburning stove in the Bethlehem house of Robert Maddox, left, who
also has a solar hot water system.; Edward Witkin of Bridgewater, above,
installed solar panels on a well to power a driveway light. At right, part
of his hot water system.

(Photographs by Joseph Kugielsky for The New York Times)(pg. 4)

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner.
Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.