Solar Air Heating Unit on Home North of Kansas City

This product is  a supplemental space heater powered by solar energy.  It is mounted vertically on the south wall of your home.  Air is drawn from inside the room through the bottom of the collector and blown out through a duct in the top.  The unit is self-powered and no electrical hook-up is required. 

The smaller unit is about 4’ by 5' and will heat rooms up to 300 square feet. Installed cost is $2,300.  The larger unit is about 4’ by 8’ and will heat up to 700 square feet of living space.  Before tax credits, the full installed cost is $2,900.  Contact us at 913-495-9434 for more information and check out the story about a Missouri family that owns one.

Posty Cards is one of the first businesses to take advantage of Kansas City Power & Light’s new solar rebate program of $2 per watt. The rebate offsets  the  cost by nearly 25%!  In addition, the company received a federal grant of 30% and accelerated depreciation.

“With our new solar PV array now generating over 11% of our total power, we’ve taken a huge step toward our goal of offering customers the most sustainably produced products and services in our industry,”  says Erick Jessee, President.

The array consists of 198 Sharp 224 Watt solar panels (all made in the USA) for a total of 44.3 kilowatts. It is tied to the grid and offsets 11% of total electricity usage.

The array features six SMA 7,000 Watt inverters  to convert the DC electricity generated by the panels into usable AC electricity for the facility.  By using special clamps that attach to the seams of the metal roof, only one roof penetration was required in the installation of the panels.

Property Accessed Clean Energy, or PACE, is a way for homeowners and businesses to finance renewable energy and energy efficiency upgrades through an established bond program at the City, County or State level.  The low-interest loans/bonds are typically easier to obtain and cheaper than going to a bank on your own.  The PACE loans get paid back as a tax assessment.  Most programs allow for building owners to opt for a 20- year assessment on their property taxes.  If the home or business is sold, the new owner continues the payments.
 
Several states including Missouri have jumped on the PACE band wagon.  Governor Nixon signed the PACE legislation on July 12th enabling Cities and Counties to establish special Clean Energy Development Boards with the authority to issue the low-interest bonds.  Twenty three other states as well as several cities and counties have recognized the immediate and long-term benefits of providing for energy upgrades upfront.  By helping to spread out the initial investment communities see reduced energy consumption, economic influx, job creation as well as decreases in carbon and other pollutants.  Building owners are able to improve their property and the occupants in homes and businesses are provided better living spaces.  The program requires that the monthly energy savings must be more than the assessment, which reduces the cost of ownership immediately thereby improving the cash flow of participants.
 
Sounds like a win- win situation all around right? 

Unfortunately the PACE program has hit a snag.  Federally backed mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have argued that PACE programs put the security interest of mortgage companies at risk as the loans take on a first or senior to the mortgage.  All is not lost however; The Federal Housing Financing Agency, which oversees Fannie May & Freddie Mac, says they are working to resolve the issue and legislation has been introduced by Congressmen Michael Thompson to protect PACE (H.R. 5766).  Many see the issue as a matter of a states right to utilize assessment districts.  You can learn more about the fight for PACE and what you can do to help to ensure that it gets back on track by visiting:  http://pacenow.org  and http://votesolar.org

Business leaders, including The Energy Savings Store and representatives from 17 counties and 15 cities attended a recent training sponsored by Renew Missouri to learn more about how to establish a PACE program in their communities.  Many are moving ahead laying the ground work to establish their Clean Energy Development Boards so they will be ready to once the mortgage issue is resolved.  Contact your local municipality or county government and ask if they are planning to establish a PACE program.

The whole installation took two hours. This video is 47 seconds and shows our team installing all of the solar panels. 

Antonio's New Solar Panels

My good friend, Antonio Cutolo-Ring, finally took the plunge and installed a 3.2 kW solar pv array on his home in Weston, MO.  The array is grid-tied and we (The Energy Savings Store) used 14 - 225 watt Sunpower panels with Enphase micro- inverters (because of shading issues).  Antonio e-mailed me after the first few days: "Yes, everything seems to be working well.  I know the solar panels won't be always be producing as much electricity as they have the last three days, but it looks to me like that if they did and I don't use any more electricity than last year that I'd be producing as much electricity as I use!  Pretty cool." 

Antonio's home is very energy efficient already and we estimate it will produce about 85% of his electricity needs. 

In addition to the 30% federal tax credit, he was able to take advantage of KCP&L's new $2/watt solar rebate - cutting his installation cost in half.  Antonio and I are both on the board of Concerned Citizens of Platte County together - we work on environmental and health issues.  He told me "I'm very pleased to have finally been able to put my money where my mouth has been for so long!" 

A note on the photo: that's Taneasha Bledsoe - our new Staff Engineer looking so cool on the roof.

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.

The Kansas City Board of Public Utilities Build Green Energy Efficiency Award at the 2010 Build Green Conference was awarded to our proprietor, Bob Solger, and Ann Brandau-Murguia, Argentine Neighborhood Development Association (ANDA). 

The Energy Savings Store provided design and installation of Solar Hot Water, Solar Air Heating, Solatubes, and Solar Attic Fans for four new affordable homes in the Argentine neighborhood of Kansas City, Kansas.

ANDA secured grants to install the energy efficient systems. The ongoing electrical utility bills will be lower than the surrounding homes. Because these energy efficient homes will cost less to maintain,  it was easier for people to qualify for the home loans. ANDA was pleased with how quickly they were able to sell the homes....  and to bring renewable energy into the neighborhood.

In addition to looking at all the different kinds of solar panels, "windmills"
(wind turbines), and other products on display, the students got to see and experience solar power in use.

As part of the tour, the students saw the solar panels on the back of our building , which help power our showroom.  The projector, lights, coffee machine and more are all powered at least in part, by solar energy.

When the elecrical company cannot provide us with power because of down power lines or any other reason, we will sill have power. The solar panels supply power to back up batteries, which kick in when the power goes off.  The kids had to crowd around to see the four batteries, which  look an awful lot like car batteries.

We then visited the wind turbine installed by our team at the LEED Gold certified Sunset building in Olathe.  The building has an abundance of sustainable design elements that reduce or eliminate negative impacts on the environment.
 

This makes him the first Kansas City area solar professional Certified in Solar PV Installation by NABCEP (Jesse's Certification is listed under Oregon - his home state). This is a challenging test and not a small accomplishment. We're proud of him and proud to have him on our staff.

We have a committment to all our employees for ongoing training. To our clients, our committment is to doing the best job possible.

 We installed a Sanyo ten panel, 2,000 watt solar energy system. It provides power to Outback brand back-up batteries, which are then used to power our showroom. The power goes to our computers, lights, and other general energy use. 

If there's a storm or other reason we lose power from the energy company (from the grid), those batteries will supply energy to our most important electrical devices, like the computers and lights. 

There are lots of excellent solar energy solutions for businesses, but for our building, we found a "solar awning" was the best kind of installation for us. Usually a solar awning is placed above windows to provide shade in addition to generating power.  Our awnings provide minimal shade at the back of the building where we park, but we love to see the
panels when we come to work every day.  

Since the panels are invisible from the front of the building, no one can tell if we're solar powered or not. Visitors to our showroom can view the solar energy monitor which shows how much energy is being produced while they are there.  This kind of monitoring system comes with every solar energy system we sell.