Our Solar

This page is under construction. It gives you an idea of our entire solar home design. We plan to flesh this out in the future with more details and photos.

We began building our solar home in 1998. The house is designed to utilize passive solar heating and cooling as well as natural lighting. The house is attached to a 3 story concrete block tower that provides cooling, storage, utility.

Passive Solar Home Design

Raised concrete slab back filled with earth to act as a heat sink.
Faces South for maximum solar gain.
Front porch overhang to shade in summer, allow solar gain in winter
Casement windows to allow full opening for evening warm weather cooling.
Well insulated with proper roof venting.
Adjacent tower creates circulation to pull cool air into house and warm air out and up.

Water System

DC Well Pump. Lorentz. Operates directly off battery.
1000 gallon water tank.
Gravity Fed Water (eliminates need for powering a pressure tank).
Propane hot water.

Solar Electric System

Battery bank: Eight L-16 batteries wired in series. Storage capacity: 360 amp hours at 48 V nominal. Approximately
Average year round electricity production: 3.5 KwH per day.
Trace 4048 SW inverter converts our homemade DC power (from battery bank or solar panel) to clean AC power for our home.

Electricity use In our home:

High efficiency standard Maytag refrigerator
High efficiency Whirlpool front loading washing machine
Compact florescent and florescent tube lighting throughout
Electric fans (ceiling and stand) during warm season
Desk top computer and printer
High quality venting fans in kitchen and bathroom
Various small appliances including Kitchen Aid Mixer, Oster Blender, Food Processor, and Tortilla Press.

Other energy use:

Wood heat. Frontier Castings high efficiency wood stove with catalytic converter. Converter reduces emissions and increases the heat energy pulled from wood combustion.
Propane cook stove by Peerless Premier.
Propane hot water heater.
Whirlpool propane front loading dryer. Clothes line used in warmer weather.

Future Plans