Here we go again. Let's get into the details about how solar systems work and how you can benefit from them. I found this article very good.

Harnessing the Sun: Passive and Active Solar Systems

When Orlo Stitts' home in Rogers, Ark., won the EnergyValue Housing Award, it was a model of sound passive solar design. The home was also photovoltaic ready, but with the utility at that time unwilling to budge on net metering, Stitt was unable to integrate an active solar system on the grid. That changed in January 2006, when Arkansas passed interconnection legislation. Now his meter sometimes runs backwards, the way he had always hoped it would. And he's selling solar every chance he gets. Stitts discusses the technology and its role in his own home:

My house has been a research house for the last eight years. I'm working on a progressive plan to minimize utility bills. For the last seven years, up until just recently, it has operated as a very energy-efficient, passive solar home. The house has a very tight ICF structure, with just 0.07 natural air changes per hour. Our utility bills were averaging just $65 per month for 3,295 square feet-two and a half times less than other homes around here.

Passive solar design
We build for passive solar design every chance we get. It makes a house unique, and it makes a lot of sense.. And passive solar design along with other energy efficiency measures can reduce energy costs very significantly. It's so affordable for the customer, and it makes you more in touch with the weather and the great outdoors.

I always point out, "Houses have four sides and therefore face four directions." The buyer needs to think about where the sun is, how it can be used in winter, and how to keep it out in summer. Otherwise, it's like putting your feet in the oven and head in the refrigerator and expecting you'll be comfortable.

For a passive solar design, we use overhangs and low-e, argon-filled windows on all sides. The placement of the house on the property is planned to minimize utility bills year round. In the northern hemisphere, the sun is high overhead in summer, and in the winter it drops down to the south. We use faux roofs that create an eave over the windows to control the sun in the house, just like your eyebrows shade your eyes. Sometimes we extend a porch for the western sun.

Of course, you want to consider beautiful views, too. It's an art to place a house; there's no right or wrong. In the house and site plans, we like to have lots of glass and orientation to the south. Even the landscape plan is a matter of where we need to put deciduous trees to let in winter sun or coniferous trees that will break the prevailing wind to the north or northwest.

Gridlock
When my house was built, Arkansas had not yet passed legislation requiring utilities to offer net metering options. Years back, the state passed legislation that you could send power back to the grid, but there were holes in it. The utility could pay you 2 cents for your power, and charge you 9 cents for theirs. Some folks would do "guerilla solar" anyway-net metering without the approval or knowledge of the utility-but we wanted to do it officially and be able to tell our customers what we were doing.

We were fortunate to have a champion in Bill Ball, who's at Stellar Sun in Little Rock and has been building systems for people off the grid most of his life. He and others took the argument to the state legislature and the Public Service Commission. The utility didn't want anyone feeding into their infrastructure; they were concerned about the safety of linemen making repairs during outages and the quality of the power. But eventually we got the legislation in place.

My interconnection contract came in the mail not long ago, so the PV system is finally up and running. We're going to try to zero out every month. Even on overcast days, we get some power. On bright days, it does very well.

Selling solar
The PV system costs about $26,500 labor and materials, with the batteries and uninterruptible power supply (UPS). It's definitely a niche market, but it has the potential for much broader appeal.

Offering PV systems puts us in the forefront. We get the mavens-people who want to research everything. They're not casual buyers. Our customers are people who define quality of life as something different from the "McBig" house or the "starter castle." They want well-planned, efficient use of space and energy.

We sell the reliability of solar and the long-term benefits of holistic systems. The economic dividends of an energy-efficient home and solar system with battery back-up don't ever go down; the system always pays off. The higher energy prices go, the bigger the dividend. It is certainly a better investment than granite counter tops or a bass boat. Some states and municipalities-New Jersey, Colorado, Texas, Nevada and California among them-have the payback down to seven years or less with the rebates and incentives they offer. I believe it's the start of a trend.

We're selective about which customers we approach to sell PVs. It may be that they're in a remote area, with no power. Or they want to be independent. Many of them are realists about the fact that the price of energy is going up. Some may just like to play with it.

We show them our house, now that it's complete. A lot of times, it just sells itself. You've got to have something for people to see; they aren't very good at imagining a PV system. They'll think it's going to be ugly on the roof. My goal is to integrate it so that it's not aesthetically unappealing.

The PVs need to be considered during the design phase. It's a matter of taking what roof is available. You define an area and then determine how many panels can go in there.

Installation and education
We use a Sharp PV array. Alpha Technologies is our supplier of the PV system. They have an integrated system, with their own inverter. It comes as a kit, so it allows us to offer the customer a suite of options.

The manufacturer helped in the specifications of the system and sent a representative to assist with the installation. The supplier sent a very capable person to help on the first house we did. There was a good instruction manual, too. It was on-the-job training for our crew and for me.

Our crew put the panels up. We installed them with the help of an electrician, which the state and utility require. With some support from the supplier, the electrician wired it and checked for voltage, amperage and function.

The panels were up in a day; the wiring took another full day and a bit of the next. We checked the system on the third day. It was probably a day longer than it should have been, because we were green. The only snag was that one of the panels was damaged by a forklift. The supplier FedExed a replacement panel, and it arrived the next day.

When we provide energy systems only, we have to work with the builder to persuade him to do things our way-saving trees, for example. We'd never take out a tree for the sake of solar, but we might trim the lower branches of one if it was shading the house or the solar array. We mark the trees when the house is staked, and talk with the owners, the builder and excavators on site about how the trees function as a part of the whole to minimize utility bills.

But you can run into resistance from subcontractors and others who have never done an energy-efficient home before, so you have to educate them on the advantages right up front. HVAC contractors, for example: They'll think we need a
bigger air conditioning system than we do. Friends and competitors might go right to the homeowners and tell them they're wasting their money. They can make an impression.

Then there are the building and trade inspectors. Most of them need to be advised of the differences regarding PVs and solar thermal systems. For the most part, if it's done right and they have the knowledge and assurance they need, it's fine. They just want to know it meets UL and national electric codes.

Lead time ... and leadership
We waited about two months for the panels, which worked fine with our work schedule. There is some shortage of panels, though, because of world demand. Supposedly the industry is working very hard to relieve that shortage.

The challenges with solar and energy efficiency are not technical. We have the technology right now to save more than 50 percent of what we spend on home energy. We just need strong leadership. Many places promote and encourage solar. Some utility companies see it as a way of postponing new power plants. Distributed generation is more efficient, cleaner-and it will bring our energy dollars home to America.

I just read an article in the March 2006 issue of Solar Today that challenges us to imagine life in 2106-what it would be like if green renewables proliferated. The environment would be better. The air would be cleaner. Health-care costs would be down. It's a real positive, lifting article, a "just do it" message. I am confident that it's going to happen.

http://www.hgtvpro.com/hpro/di_green_sustainable/article/0,2618,HPRO_20616_5140673,00.html