August 6, 2009

We just received the data from Sri at Steven Winter and Associates for July. We were hardly home during the month, because of vacation and Verona took 23 students to Europe again. We were amazed to see that for the second month, we produced over 1000 kWh - earning more than $300 each month for the sale of the electricity. Our electric bill also came in the mail yesterday and it is very strange to see a credit of $583.72 on a utility bill! Strange, but exciting.

Today we finally had the two trees on the west side of the house taken down and it sure brought in the evening light. It will be interesting to see how it affects production.

It has been wonderful living in our new home and we are truly enjoying the comfort, the beautiful views and all the wildlife. Our bald eagles greet us almost daily, the deer frolic in the river, rabbits, muskrats and even a badger seem to have a highway along the bank by our patio. Life is good!



June 24, 2009

It is hard to believe that we are nearing the end of our fourth month in this wonderful home. On the other hand, it truly does feel like home. Last week, we put the finishing touches on the exterior designs, plantings, rain collection system and our new vineyard. The first set-up for the rain barrels proved to be woefully inadequate for the volume of water that comes off the two roofs of the house. We have just one scupper and downspout coming off the house roof and one off the garage roof. Both were sent via a 4 inch pipe into a 50 gallon rain barrel. That barrel was then connected to a second via a ¾ inch plastic hose.

The first evening it was hooked up, we received a massive downpour. I was hurrying around outside bringing the umbrellas, seat cushions and various other object in out of the weather. I then eagerly ran over to the east side of the house to check out the rain catchment system. Much to my surprise, after less than 10 minutes of rain, the first barrel was completely full and water was pouring over the sides. I examined the second barrel and there wasn't much water inside. Worse, the little ¾ inch hose, was not even close to keeping up with the overflow from the first barrel. I quickly went to the garage and emptied my 45 gallon garbage can and placed it under the first barrel to try to catch some of the water. I then detached the hose from the garage roof and repositioned it over the second barrel. Within another five minutes, all three containers were full and the water was pouring over the tops of them all onto the ground.

So, at that point, I was drenched, happy to have caught 145 gallons of water to use for our new plants and lawn, but a bit frustrated that the system had some flaws. Luckily, Jason, our landscaper, had some good ideas and fixed up the rain barrels with much larger overflow connections and he repositioned them. As luck would have it, that evening, we were recipients of yet another torrential downpour. This time, the barrels filled up just as quickly, but the overflows worked correctly and the excess water was diverted away from the house.

Last week we signed our agreement with Black River Falls Municipal Utilities (a WPPI Energy member) to produce and sell electricity to them for the next 10 years. We are very pleased that WPPI Energy has been able to secure approval for a very favorable buy-back rate. On May 19th, our meters were reset, both the house meter and the solar meter were set to "0". On June 1st, our 12 months of monitoring began. Our goal will be to have the same number on both meters (or a lower one on the house meter than on the solar meter) on May 31st of next year.

At this point we are well on track to achieving the net zero goal. As I write this, little more than a month after resetting the meters, the Solar meter shows 1251 kWh produced and the house meter shows that we have only used 655 kWh. We realize that this is a sunny time of the year and we are experiencing the longest days of the year. Nevertheless, it has been interesting for us to realize - since I have become obsessive about checking and writing down our use and production from the meters nearly daily - that our best production day thus far was not in June, or even in May, but rather it was on one of the coldest days of the year. In February, on a bitter cold, but crystal clear day, a very short day of sunlight, too, our solar system produced over 57 kWh of electricity. Sunny days these past two weeks have barely been hitting the upper 40s.

We are also planning on cutting down two big trees on the west side of our property to improve the electricity production even more.



May 4, 2009

It is still stunning to walk through our home and see the spectacular views of the river and the city below, especially in the evenings when the dam and the bridge are lit up. Living in our GreenMax home is truly exceeding our expectations. It is very comfortable whether on very cold days or hot sunny days; the temperature in the house stays perfectly constant and it is so nice to barely hear the fans running.

This week, Sri and Doug from Steven Winter and Associates spent four long days in the basement stringing wires from one end to the other. They connected up all the temperature, water flow and pressure sensors to the heat pump, hot water tank and heater, and power pipe. They also packed our breaker panel with wires to monitor each circuit separately and connected our solar PV inverter to their system. They will be monitoring all of our energy activity and we are eager to get the data back to see how efficiently we are living.

We have turned our focus now to the landscaping and getting the outside of the house and property finished. It has been a challenge coming up with shrub and tree ideas that don't (or won't 10 -20 years from now) interfere with the solar PV system. We have plans for low-growing plants especially along the south and west sides of the house.

Inside, we are truly enjoying the very open, bright feeling of the home. The kitchen is fabulous for cooking quick meals and then enjoying them at the counter or, better yet, at the dining room table looking out over the river. Verona loves her induction cook top „Ÿ a true time and energy saver! Some new and novel items in the home are still exciting for us, such as the structural plumbing. It is amazing to have hot water at your faucet in just seconds, not having to run so much down the drain before it "heats up".

We are so happy with how everything has turned out and are very eager to find out how the house performs!