Powell Street Residential
Overview
The family at this residence on Powell Street in Parkersburg, WV had been making steps toward energy conservation for the last ten years. First, they installed energy-efficient lighting throughout the house. Next, they replaced their central air conditioning system and other appliances as they wore-out with the most energy-efficient models available. Then they replaced their old gas-guzzling vehicles with a plug-in hybrid Chevy Volt and a more fuel-efficient small SUV to reduce their carbon footprint even further. Finally they made the jump to converting to solar energy as their main source of electricity. In total, they expect their household electricity bill will be reduced by 60% as their energy efficiency improvements and the solar roof system more than offset the increased electricity usage of the electric vehicle.
The Powell Street installation was a challenge in two ways. First, the owner’s stated interest was to, “stuff as many panels on the roof as possible” and second, he was totally serious. The L shaped roof has two sections and each section has a 3.25 kW solar array. To accomplish this, the panels were literally “stuffed” on the roof from gutter to ridge. The combined arrays consists of 26, 250 W monocrystalline panels providing on average a total 6.5kWDC generation capacity. This is a grid intertie system and excess energy produced but not used is fed back into the power grid.
Project Highlights:
- High efficiency monocrystalline solar panels
- Owners used efficiency measures to enhance the power of their renewable energy system
- Solar power system used to charge electric vehicle
Monitor PV Power Live
% Power Gen. 60%
