Largest Solar Powered Home in Mahoning County

[irishbobcat]

The Amish in Holmes County, Ohio are turning to solar power in leaps and bounds. They are using storage batteries to power home lighting at night.

[AllanY2525]

Years ( eons?  LOL... ) ago, when I was a kid, my mom lived on West Perry Street in Salem.
There was a gentleman down the street several doors who was a contractor, and built
his own solar home.

It was fantastic - it had four bedrooms, two kitchens, three baths, an indoor two stall
garage, and a "solar works" room between the main part of the house and the garage.
There was some kind of newspaper article about the house when he finished building it.

This guy was a genius in his own time.  There was a 5,000(?) gallon, ceramic tank under the floor
in the solar works room that could store heated water for weeks - it was used to keep a
"reserve" of solar heat for days when the sun was not out.  The lighting in the house was
powered by public utility, but with the assistance of solar generated electricity - a hybrid,
if you will.

The heating system was also a hybrid - he had a small, gas powered "emergency back up"
furnace, but almost all of the heat was provided by solar panels on the front of the house.
He also had a wood-burning fireplace in the solar works room - the grate for the logs was
made of stainless steel tubing, and liquid from the home's heating system could be pumped
through it when a fire was burning there to boost the heating system further.

He also had an AWESOME indoor garden in the solar works room - the entire ceiling was
made of glass to capture and retain heat inside the room.  There were tomato plants
tied to wooden stakes that were almost ten feet high, and he grew fresh produce
all year long - which helped to cut his grocery bills.

He built the entire house - including the solar systems - for around $150,000 ... I wonder what
that would translate into at today's prices?  Solar electric cells have come down considerably
in price, due to advances in technology. 

Most of the other components were ordinary stuff, ie: circulating pumps, a liquid of some type
to transfer the heat throughout the house, some kind of temperature control system (a
"brain box" to run everything), etc.  The solar heat panels were built onto the
front of the place in a glass enclosure, angled at 45 degrees and facing south.  They had
some kind of tubing inside that the heating liquid was circulated through.

The house itself was pretty conventional, except for the fact that it was SUPER insulated.
It had double-pane windows, with inert gas between the glass panes just like the modern
vinyl windows they have now.

I remember him saying that his average winter gas bill at that time was about
$24 a month.

Solar electricity is still relatively expensive because of the initial investment in the solar
panels, etc. but I'm wondering if anyone is working on a design for a hybrid power
system that could run on both solar and public electricity?  With advancements in
battery technology for storing the electrical energy, and LED and compact florescent
lighting the amount of electricity needed to light a home can be greatly reduced.
Another benefit of LED lighting is that technically, LEDs never burn out.

As far as home heating goes solar makes a lot of sense.  The components for solar
heating are far less expensive because they are conventional (ie pipes and pumps, etc)
and with natural gas prices going higher and higher a solar heating system (or a hybrid system)
would pay for itself much faster than solar electric power - not to mention the tax credits
that a home owner could get by installing it.

[sfc_oliver]

That's great, when it can be affordable without Tax payer dollars let me know.


"The support from our state and federal governments and the amount of incentives that we have now?"

[Youngstownshrimp]

Irishbob, good article!   When you get the Green Team to harness the energy of the Yellow Creek, you will prove that Green is the future.

[irishbobcat]

  Largest Solar Powered Home in Mahoning County   

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Janet Reeves spent 2 years researching how to make her home solar-powered, before installing 2 panels in her backyard last July. The results are already rewarding, as her most recent energy bill totaled just 57 cents. "It took your breath away for a minute," Reeves said. "You had to look at it a few times to make sure it was real."  Monday morning, Reeves, representatives from Valley Energy Solutions and State Senator Joe Schiavone, showed how solar panels provide 100 percent of the energy to the house built back in the mid-1800's. "It's very unique for this area," said Daniel Quinlan of Valley Energy Solutions. "It kind of shows the progression we've made. Even on a cloudy, rainy day, the solar panels still do their job. "On a day like today, when it's pretty cloudy, we're still producing energy," Reeves said. "And we'll continue producing energy as our days get longer and we have more light and we have more sun." Everyone agreed that now is the time to take advantage of incentives like grants and tax credits from the government. "I realize that this isn't something that every single person in the Valley is able to do. You've got to have a lot of room and some money for start-up costs. But, the state is at least making it somewhat easier to start up," said Ohio State Senator Joe Schiavone. Daniel Quinlan agrees. "The support from our state and federal governments and the amount of incentives that we have now? I don't think we've ever had this much incentive," he said. The first step to seeing if your home can be solar-powered is to schedule an energy audit. That'll see whether or not the house is configured properly to handle solar panels.