Sandy Szabat home -
Directions: 7 Balsa Drive, Eldorado, 466-6702
Installed : November, 2009
System Components: 16 Sunpower 215 Watt Solar Modules w/ 4000W Sunpower Inverter, Sunpower Monitoring System
System Output: 3,440 watts of power; 5,560 kilowatt-hours/year energy production
Sandy Szabat's passive solar home built in 1988 by Sierra Homes, is 1,950 sf and includes southwest-facing tromb walls, clearestory windows projecting to interior adobe walls on the northeast side of house. The passive solar heating/cooling of the house works nicely, but during coldest months we use a wood burning stove in the main living space to augment. The hot water heater is gas and we plan to eventually install a solar-thermal system.
In the two years prior to installing the rooftop solar PV system, our efforts to lower the homeÕs carbon footprint included, replacing light bulbs with fluorescent, replacing major home appliances with energy-star units, installing power strips on electronic equipment, and training our family of four to switch off lights, electronics when not in use. We also replaced our torch-down tar roof with a spray foam/gravel product which has high insulation value. Despite the desire to minimize our environmental impact, we did spring for a hot tub a few years ago which to our surprise and that of our installers, is also supported by our system.
The tax credit we earned from state and federal was a nice benefit as well, providing a return of approximately one third of the installation cost.
We are now producing more power than we use, with an average daily production of 17 kw hours. Our unused clean energy flows back out to the grid to serve our neighborhood and we get a monthly check from PNM averaging $65.