When my husband and I came home from work last week, we made a point to swing by our electrical panel where we had had some work done while we were out.  ”We’ve been Smart Metered!!” we exclaimed simultaneously when we saw the digital display on our meter.

All evening, I went on the offense, flicking off switches and setting dimmers to the low setting. I was convinced that I was doing my part to save energy, and save the world.  But, as much of a difference as I’d like to think flipping off a light switch makes, the sad truth is that the effect of such a small action is negligible.  While this form of thought may be mistaken, it’s widespread among most Americans, according to a recent survey conducted by the Earth Institute at Columbia University.  505 participants across 34 states were surveyed to reveal that most Americans don’t really understand how to best save energy — 20% of them chose switching off lights as the best way to save energy. Not to say that we should all stop turning off lights, but there are a lot more actions we can take that are significantly more impactful. Surprisingly, though, the more effective energy saving practices – like using more efficient appliances, buying efficient cars, and weatherizing the home-  had six to ten times fewer responses each than switching off the light.

My new Smart Meter definitely triggered my knee-jerk reaction to energy conservation, but I know that is not the smartest approach over time to reduce my carbon footprint.  Instead, my husband and I should prioritize our weatherization project, which we’d discussed but hadn’t started.  If I actually want to make a noticeable dent in our energy consumption, I have to start looking at more important home improvements, such as home solar and weatherization. And with easy and affordable solar plans from SunRun, sometimes saving energy is just as easy as flipping a switch.

August 19, 2010

Let’s be honest – in our current economic climate, undertaking extensive home renovation projects is probably not on the top of your list.  Consider saving the new fireplace or the underground swimming pool project for another year in favor of one home improvement that will not only drastically increase your property value, but also help you sell your home faster: installing solar panels.

Why does solar increase your home value?

Imagine that your electricity was going to get more expensive and your utility would raise its rates at any given time. Imagine that national demand for that expensive electricity was going to keep growing, and had already grown 25% since 1990.  Finally, imagine that generating this traditional, expensive electricity was creating pollution and hurting the environment.

You’re not imagining. The above are all realities that explain why solar homes sell faster, and for more money. According to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy, a solar home will sell twice as quickly as a home without solar.

Want to learn more? Read SunRun’s newest report on the impact of solar panels on the value of your home: Solar Home Value – SunRun Report.

August 16, 2010

For the past six years, Bob Schildgen has been writing the popular environmental advice column, Hey Mr. Green, for Sierra, the national magazine of the Sierra Club.”  He often receives questions from his readers about getting solar for their homes. Curious, we asked Mr. Green to guestblog for Sweet Solar Home and let us in on some of the most frequently asked questions about home solar power. This is his first SunRun guest post, but we hope not the last!

“I’d like to go solar, but it seem to cost so much. Does it really pay? What can I do to reduce the price of solar? I don’t seem to have enough room on my roof to meet our needs.” These are the most common questions I get about solar from the readers of the environmental advice column I write for Sierra, the national magazine of the Sierra Club.

I don’t answer these questions right away, for the simple reason that most people don’t know how much solar capacity they really need to purchase, and they often overestimate their actual requirements. So, I recommend that before installing solar, they carefully monitor their electricity consumption and take steps to reduce it as much as possible. Most households use far more power than they really need. For example, in the U.S. we use about twice as much electricity per capita as, for example, Germany or Italy. Air-conditioning accounts for over 30

Two uses, which are extremely easy to reduce, air-conditioning, account for over 30% of average household electricity consumption.

There are many excellent, common-sense sources for information on reducing electrical (and all other) energy consumption, including tips from the Environmental Protection Agency and the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy’s (ACEEE). (If this country were to follow the energy advice and energy policies advocated by ACEEE we wouldn’t have to build another power plant, let alone some of the nuclear monstrosities that have been proposed.)

Once you’ve slashed your electricity use by following as much of this free advice as possible, your usage in kilowatt hours should be substantially reduced.  This will be obvious when you compare bills from the same periods of the year before you tightened things up. (If you want to find out instantly how much you’ve managed to cut your use, there are now a number of power monitors available.)

After this, you might be surprised to find that home solar is more affordable than you thought, and that you, in fact, have plenty of space for it.

Once you have determined how much solar power you truly need, it is important to take advantage of all incentives in state, local, and federal tax breaks, or rebates. For example, you can get a federal tax credit of up to 30% of the cost of a solar electric system. (For details on this, and all other types of federal tax credits, see the U.S. Department of Energy’s Consumer Energy Tax Incentives. Your prospective solar company should be able to provide up-to-date information on every aspect of solar economics.)

You can also get a rough estimate of costs by using online solar calculators, but local installers will also be able to give you a precise estimate.

August 12, 2010

New Jersey homeowners can’t get enough of residential home solar with The Home Depot and SunRun.

Over 50 homeowners flocked to a recent after-work SunRun home solar workshop at a The Home Depot store in South Plainfield, New Jersey Tuesday, August 10th. They bonded over their current electricity bills and discussed SunRun home solar plans as an affordable and renewable solution for their rising energy costs.  The interactive hour-long work-shop included a hefty question and answer session tackling some big solar questions, including:

Q: What is the best roof for solar?
A: The best roofs get several hours of sun a day, face south or southwest, and don’t have a lot of shade.

Q: How long will a home solar system last?
A: Most solar systems will last anywhere between 25 and 35 years.

Q: How long is my customer agreement and what happens at the end of it?
A: Your SunRun customer agreement lasts 20 years. At the end of your agreement, you can either purchase the solar equipment, renew your SunRun agreement, or we will remove the system at no cost to you.

Q: What if I move before the end of my SunRun agreement?
A: The solar system stays with the home. You can simply transfer the agreement to the new homeowner, who will then pay the same low rate for solar electricity, or purchase the system from SunRun and sell it with your home.

Q: How does SunRun impact my relationship with my utility company?
A: Your house will remain connected to the electricity grid and your utility for traditional electricity as needed. Your utility will credit you when your system produces more electricity than you use. You can use these credits to pull from the grid when you use more electricity than your system produces.

Learn more about going solar in New Jersey with SunRun and SunRun’s partnership with The Home Depot.

August 3, 2010

Our third guest post is from science and environmental writer (and SunRun homeowner), Todd Neff. Learn how he and his neighbors are making a difference in the environment (and easing the strain on their utility grid) with their home solar systems. If you’re interested in contributing a guest post for our blog, send an email to nami@sunrunhome.com.  We welcome all SunRun homeowners and solar enthusiasts!

As a Denver science and environment writer, I was well familiar with the benefits of rooftop solar. For me, those benefits were primarily environmental. Rooftop solar tends to follow the power demand curve – that is, its output is highest on those summer days that stress the power grid the most. Utilities pay top dollar for electrons on these June-July-August afternoons. Despite doing so, overloading from air conditioning demand blows transformers and substations. Neighborhoods and business districts go dark. Further, I’ve covered climate change extensively, and the benefits of substituting photovoltaic power for the coal-fired or even natural-gas-generated variety need little elaboration.

But man, was solar expensive. A neighbor installed a system and spent more than $14,000 up front, despite rebates covering more than half the cost. It’ll pay itself off in 15-20 years, even assuming modest utility rate increases. He owns the silicon and the inverters (he has two—it’s a big, 5.5 kilowatt system). It’s a beautiful system.

But 14 grand is beyond the possible for an obscure writer. I told him: One day I’m going to have solar panels, and I’m going to pour myself a cup of coffee, walk outside, look up at my roof and just bask in the knowledge that the stimulant in my hands was literally heated by the sun.

I was thinking it would take, like, a decade. Well, thanks to SunRun, it was less than a year. REC Solar is an installer representing SunRun in Colorado (I’m not sure if this is an exclusive arrangement). A neighbor came upon SunRun through REC. The neighbor is an entrepreneur with a PhD in biological engineering. He put SunRun through the wringer, trying to make sense of this leasing deal. He told me it checked out. He’s got a 4.4 kilowatt system now.

I had signed with SunRun before his panels were up. The system’s 2.86 kilowatts, limited by roof size and orientation. All morning, this baby’s drinking in Colorado sunshine and cranking out 2-2.5 kilowatts. It’s generating more than a kilowatt until probably 3 p.m., at which point it trickles to a nightlight’s worth of energy at dusk, and finally goes dormant for the night. I pay SunRun an average of 9.5 cents per kilowatt hour — $39 a month for 20 years. I own neither silicon nor inverter. Nor do I want to. It’s essentially a mortgage, but on an asset that generates a valuable commodity while preserving an even more valuable commodity—the environment we live in.

My SunRun neighbor and I are feeding Xcel probably 6 kilowatts during peak morning office air-conditioning hours – this saves the utility money. And, thanks to the state and federal rebates that figured into SunRun’s pricing, I am paying *less* per kilowatt hour for the 60 percent of the electricity I’m sourcing from my roof than I am from the stuff coming from the CO2-belching Comanche, Cherokee and other Xcel Energy coal plants supplying 70 percent of Colorado’s energy. This is not to vilify Xcel, which has become a progressive utility in the past half decade. I need power when the sun goes down, too.

SunRun is a company doing good. It deserves to do well, too, and, by all indications, it is doing well. It has enabled my small environmental contribution, and is somehow managing to make money for both of us while doing so. I firmly believe that leasing is the way solar should be done, and that a few years down the road SunRun will be recognized as a trailblazer in an established industry. So you may as well get on board now.

July 30, 2010

This is the second guest post from a SunRun customer (first by Ted Reynolds of Orange County, California). Check out Glenn Ware’s post below about how he was finally able to switch to solar, thanks to SunRun’s Colorado solar leasing program. If you’re a SunRun customer and interested in contributing a guest post to our blog, please email nami@sunrunhome.com. We’re eager to add new voices to our online solar community and we look forward to hearing from you!

The Greatest Barrier to Going Solar? Upfront Cost.

I had wanted to go solar for a long time. I never thought it would be possible due to costs, but over the past year, I noticed a few of our neighbors in Colorado going solar. I wondered if things were changing in the residential solar industry.

One day, I read an article about President Obama visiting a local solar installer in Colorado, Namaste, to discuss solar jobs and government incentives. I contacted Namaste to learn more about home solar and its costs. Through those conversations, we decided that maybe the time was right for us to switch to solar, to save money and reduce our effect on the environment.

We were getting ready to sign our purchase order when word came out that our utility company, Xcel Energy, was reducing their solar rebates. This rebate change was going to increase our out-of-pocket investment for purchasing our home solar system by $3,000! We were forced to reconsider our decision to go solar because of the higher costs and longer timeline for our return on investment.  Once again, we felt that solar was out of our reach and we would have to stick with our utility company.

The Solution We’d Been Waiting For: Solar Leasing!

A few months later, we heard about a new solar leasing program that was coming to Colorado – the SunRun Power Plan. I started researching the program, but put off making a decision.

That all changed when Xcel raised their rates again and initiated a tiered-rate summer program, which charged more money per kilowatt used above the first 500 kilowatts.  I knew that with our air conditioner running in the summer, our family consumed up to 800 kilowatts. I contacted Namaste again and requested two solar quotes – one qoute for an outright purchase and another through SunRun’s solar leasing program. The quote for a solar system purchase was now $2,000 higher than the quote that I had received previously. This was, once again, due to additional rebate drops from Xcel.

On the other hand, the SunRun solar quote was so appealing and we realized that home solar was now within our reach! SunRun would allow us to upgrade our home to solar for what we were currently paying per month for electricity, with no additional money down. We would be able to go solar without a large upfront payment. In addition, we would lock in our electrical rates for the term of the lease – 20 years. It didn’t take us long to realize that SunRun was exactly what we had been waiting for. We didn’t have to take money out of our savings and started saving from day one. Plus, SunRun maintains the system for us so there are no worries about additional costs down the road.

Our system is now online and we can’t be happier. We are saving money, reducing our impact on the environment and making a statement that we want to be part of the new energy solution rather then part of the current carbon based energy problem.

Adam Shuster's 11-year-old son, Kenny, encouraged him to get home solar to save the planet.

July 20, 2010

A growing number of Massachusetts residents are going solar, according to an article in today’s Boston Globe. Climate change, along with recent environmental disasters such as the BP oil spill, coupled with rising energy prices are motivating residents to make a choice about where their electricity comes from. According to the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, 274 Massachusetts home solar systems were installed in 2007, 494 in 2008, and 847 in 2009! And there’s been a 37% increase nationally in home solar since 2008.

According to the article, “beyond the dollars and kilowatt hours…what is driving many to the solar option is something harder to quantify but perhaps more significant: an awareness that what happens in Louisiana or Iraq has a direct connection to choices they make at home.” For many, home solar means more than generating electricity. By offering affordable home solar options, SunRun has been able to turn this emotional connection and desire to a practical and feasible solution: quality solar installations by top SunRun-certified partners Alteris Renewables and groSolar, locked in electricity rates, and professional monitoring and maintenance.  All for little to no upfront cost.  Doug Herberich, one of the several SunRun homeowners featured in this piece, has been able to cut his electric bills to about 2/3 of what he used to pay, but that’s just an added bonus to the peace of mind that comes with knowing that he’s making a difference.

Take a look at the Boston Globe article to learn more about Massachusetts residents turning to solar and read interviews with several SunRun homeowners!

If want solar, but your home falls under the jurisdiction of a Home Owner’s Association, you’ll probably have to go through an approval process. The majority of HOAs in California approve solar energy systems without a problem (most HOAs are aware of your Solar Rights and support clean, solar energy in their community), but there is a small percentage of Home Owner’s Associations that might put up a fight.  HOAs can impact the feasibility, design, and completion speed of proposed home improvements, including a home solar energy system.  However, there are strategies out there to move your plans through committee.

Scott Gordon, the Vice President of Residential Sales for HelioPower, recently published a detailed blogpost about HOAs and residential solar systems. He explains the ground rules that form the foundation for solar system approval through an HOA:

• The Solar Rights Act of 1978: In California, you are not allowed to prohibit or restrict the installation or use of a solar energy system. In addition, no one, other than a public entity, is allowed to “willfully avoid or [delay]” the installation of a solar energy system.  If you do, you’ll be fined.
• Section 714 of California Civil Code: Municipalities and HOAs can restrict your solar energy system if these restrictions don’t increase its cost by more than $2,000 or decrease its efficiency/performance by more than 20%.

Scott then explains some of the Home Owners Association’s most common tactics:

• Make you move your solar panels where they won’t be visible
• Require the purchase of a type of panel that HOA will find aesthetically pleasing
• Prolong approval at their meetings, so either you’ll give up on a home solar energy system or your rebate will expire before installation.
• Get a third party “independent” solar contractor to review your desgn

And he also includes your possible next steps, if you are confronted with a stubborn HOA management board:

1. Own and lead the fight (HOA management will not listen to your solar contractor)
2. Show your HOA the solar Rights Act
3. Prepare cost and efficiency comparisons between your plans and HOA plans
4. Get photos of other solar installations your installer has done
5. And if you must, bring in some legal help or get creative – one example Scott lists is having neighbors sign a petition supporting your solar energy system design, or getting elected to the board yourself.

The most important thing is to know your rights and make sure your Home Owner’s Association knows them, too! Check out the HelioPower blog for more specifics on how to win the fight for a solar energy system in an HOA community.

This is the first in our series of guest posts from our SunRun customers! If you’re a SunRun customer and interested in writing a guest post for us, email nami@sunrunhome.com. We want to build a solar community here at SunRun and we’re always interested in adding new voices to our blog.

Hi Everybody,
My name is Ted Reynolds, a SunRun customer since June 2010, and I’ve been invited by their folks to blog on my solar experience, specifically my interaction with our solar panel system and how it has affected my lifestyle.

First things first: a little about myself. I am retired, married, and an “empty nester”.  I live in Orange County, Southern California, near the coast. I have an engineering background, love camping, fishing, hiking, my dog (and my wife, of course), reading, my computer and getting my hands in the dirt. I have a couple of favorite sayings: “All eyes and no sight,” by Shakespeare and “Bad luck is the residue of bad planning,” by an author whose name I’ve forgotten. All this, I believe, played into my decision to go solar.

I guess you could call me an environmentalist, but more of a practical kind. My philosophy is that if it is within your means to help, no matter what your age or situation, you have a duty to do so. Going solar, I decided, was the biggest, single impact I could have on the environment with no small effect on our future finances.  I am a practical person and I know large increases in the cost of electricity are coming!

I had looked into solar photovoltaic panels 3 or 4 years ago and decided that they were too expensive. But recently, I realized that rebates/tax credits would drop, electricity prices were increasing, and panel prices decreasing. No sooner had I started mulling this situation over when I received a serendipitous e-mail from Real Goods. I set up an appointment with Real Goods and had a long comprehensive consultation with their representative, David. After learning about the SunRun program, the decision to go ‘solar’ was easy. We finished up with a twenty-four module system, 5.04 kW DC, 4.3 kW AC. At present, it is turning out energy excess to our needs on most days. I am really happy with what I see so far!

SUMMARY FOR MONTH OF JUNE
Energy produced = 626.6 KwHrs.
Energy consumed = 438.6 KwHrs.
Energy credited = 188 KwHrs.

Keeping records like this has made me really aware of how much energy we are using – I will try to conserve more and find out ways to cut our consumption.

Cheers,
Ted

Don’t forget to check out Ted’s blog, where he keeps records of his energy generation and meter readings.

We’re excited to announce a new partnership with Toll Brothers and PetersenDean to provide new solar homes at The Preserve, a community in Yorba Linda, California. The Preserve, a community of 90 luxury homes that’s set to open in September 2010, features solar energy as a standard feature.   The community is being designed and built by Toll Brothers, the solar roofs are being built by PetersenDean, and SunRun is providing affordable solar service.  Homeowners will be able to move into a brand new solar-powered home for no additional upfront cost, and simply pay monthly for clean solar electricity.

Homeowners at the Preserve will pay a fixed rate of $42 per month for their solar power for the next 20 years.  They will save anywhere from $50-$100 month compared to homebuyers who opt out of solar panels.  SunRun will take complete care of every system, including maintenance, monitoring and insurance. Homeowners will move into a state-of-the-art home, complete with a solar roof designed and installed by PetersenDean.  It can’t get much easier and affordable to switch to solar than this.

Toll Brothers is leading the way in providing new homebuyers with things that are important to them – a more sustainable, affordable luxury home. It’s encouraging to see that a leading home developer such as Toll Brothers recognizes the advantage of clean solar electricity in building more affordable homes. Whether you’re looking to go solar in an existing home or in the market for a new home, SunRun offers a clean and affordable alternative to your utility.  If the enthusiastic early reaction to The Preserve is any indication, we hope to do a lot more of these homes with our partners in the future!