Solar Panels on Tracy Sterns home

Tracy Stearns, a principal with 360 Architecture, was familiar with the benefits of solar energy, and wanted to explore ways to leverage solar power in his home office. Solar can be used to create electricity, heat potable water or swimming pools, or heat the air in a room. Tracy decided to take advantage of two of these applications in his home studio office in Linwood, Kansas, and brought in his friends from The Energy Savings Store to install a solar PV and solar water heating system.

The solar PV system consists of eighteen 208W panels by Sharp. The system is tied to the grid, so that in the event that consumption exceeds production, additional electricity can be pulled off the grid. On days when the system produces more energy than needed, the excess capacity flows back onto the grid once the battery backup system is fully charged. The battery backup system can provide up to a week of power to the home and office in the event of a power failure.

The solar water heating system uses an evacuated-tube technology by ThermoMax. This 5kW system heats all the water used in the home, with a backup system available in cases of extended cloudy days or extremely heavy use. While Stearns only uses the system to heat his potable water, a similar system could be used to warm a home with a radiant heating system.