Guest Blog By: Bruce Javenkoski
My interest in making sustainable changes to our house and my life accelerated when we moved here in 1999. The house was built for passive solar and it really worked. It could be a sunny, winter day of 15 – 20 degrees and the furnace kicked off around 10:30 AM and stayed off until the late afternoon. The idea of tapping into free energy was enticing. The house also has a SE facing roof with a 45 degree slope. After our sons graduated from college we had some money to invest in energy saving updates. First, we did a home energy audit and insulated the attic to R50 and also other areas. That was inspired by the rebate available then. In 2021, Renew Wisconsin was promoting a program where a person could explore a solar array installation and they would make the contacts for you with vetted installers. So, I received 3 bids and by 8/21 had an array on our roof. We were so happy with the results we added 10 more panels (total of 29) in May of 2023. I recently ran the numbers and since the initial installation, we have generated $3500 worth of electricity. In 2023 the array provided 81% of our electricity consumption. It really is an investment, not an expense.
Since we were generating our own kWh’s, we have added a 5 stage heat pump, with a matching modulating gas furnace (9/21), a plug-in hybrid car (5/22), replaced a gas water heater with a heat pump hybrid water heater (12/23) and a fully electric car (2/24). Using therms/degree day measures, I calculated we eliminated 56% of our natural gas consumption the first winter and achieved a 63% reduction the second winter – compared to the average of the pre heat pump winters. During the 3rd winter (23/24) with the HVAC heat pump and the heat pump water heater, we reduced out natural gas consumption by 77%, compared to the pre heat pump days. About 70% of our miles on the plug-in hybrid have been electric (22,800, so far). My previous car achieved a respectable 33.5 MPG. Thus, we have offset 680 gallons of gas. So far, the fully electric car has offset an additional 63 gallons of gas.
I am projecting that the solar array will produce 10.25 MWH of electricity this year ($1780.00). With the heat pump, plug-in hybrid, fully electric car and heat pump water heater, we tripled our electricity consumption and do import electricity. I am predicting our solar array will provide 70-80% of our yearly electricity consumption.
In summary, I am so pleased we have been able to put a big dent in our carbon footprint.Again, all of these sustainable interventions eventually pay for themselves. You can’t lose!
