Lighting Up a House with the Sun's Power

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.