My Home Specs

My home sits on a 15' x 75' lot, with the home taking up 15' x 30'. So that doesn't give me a whole lot of room for massive arrays. However, I do have ideas (and parts!) for an active array, which generates much more efficiently for the same size array.

Here is a side view drawing of my house. Everything below the brown line is below ground. The dormer window in the attic is 4 foot wide. There is approx 15' x 6' of roof on the back porch. There is a double window awning over the second floor rear windows (orange). By utilizing all available flat surfaces in the south, I can have about 450 square feet of panel coverage, not all of it in the best locations. So figure about 400 sq ft of really usable area, and that can jam a bit of wattage. That's if I intend to only generate during the day! I still have the vertical mill to design, which will generate on nights and windy days.

The US Naval Observatory shows that on June 20, the sun is at 72.6 degrees altitude at 180 deg azimuth, and at 25.8 deg on December 20. The following views will demonstrate House side view and Block Side view. So, anywhere that the yellow is, I can put a panel. One of the most interesting points that I've noticed is that The Tree is in the exact perfect spot for the active array, being always in the sun, no matter what season. Now, it's not that I have anything against said tree, but can you guess what's in store for it? (chainsaw sounds) Nah, i'm gonna transplant it to a friends yard, where it can grow nice and peacefully. Oh yeah, this pic shows how the Sun travels from Winter Solstice (green) through Summer Solstice (purple). BTW, the x is centered on The Tree.

Electrical Usage

For the past year I've been tracking my daily usage of electricity, and I've been between 3-8 Kwhrs per day, for an average bill of less than $30. So, again, why am I doing this? Home Heating Oil is currently $3.00 a gallon. Which means $900-1,000 this year for heat and hot water. I should be able to spend $300-500 for auxilliary water heating with a hybrid electrical system. EVEN WITHOUT the Solar, I'll have the capability of diverting electric to hot water, and pumping that through the baseboards. And if that cuts my oil usage by 25%, it'll still pay for itself within 2-4 years, AND save money each year thereafter.

house drawings made using Home Plan Pro