Getting off the Grid: powering the house by solar electricity

Print Story | Email Story
“If you walk into our house, it seems like an absolutely normal American house,” says Roy Bryan. “The TV and the computers all work, and right now, I have the dryer running.” No one would know, unless they were told, that Roy Bryan and Susan Minnich, of Cole’s Brook Farm, are not tied into the electric grid. They produce their own electricity, through solar panels on their roof. They store their power in batteries in the basement and use it whenever they need it. Bryan gave a workshop on powering a house by solar energy on April 21 as part of “Our Community, Our Earth — Nuestra Cominidad, Nuestra Tuerra,” an Earth Day celebration in Great Barrington. He and Minnich have run their house and farm by solar power for at least 12 years, and Bryan has given talks about it. When a house goes off the grid, the owners become their own power company, he said. “The rule of thumb is that if you are a mile off the grid, [the] economic advantage [is] to go solar. Otherwise, there is some cost to it, unless you can sell power back to the grid.” A house’s distance from the grid is simply its distance from the nearest telephone pole. Most people who want to make their own electricity pick solar, Bryan said. Fuel-cell technology is not quite within reach, and the other options that most people may have, hydroelectric and wind power, are both high maintenance. The owner of a windmill has to maintain and repair propellers. To power a house by water, the owner has to have a stream close by with a 40-foot drop in it, and has to survive spring floods and repair pipes. Solar is easy. To run a solar system, Bryan said, he just puts the panels up, and they just sit there. He does go out in winter and sweep them off with a broom, but this is not necessary. Anyone driving down the turnpike can see the telephone company’s solar panels, he said, and the phone company never cleans them. The panels will clean snow off themselves in a few days. Once the panels have collected energy, it is transferred to batteries and stored. NASA invented solar panels originally for space travel. It also invented what Bryan considers biggest advance in solar technology for commercial use, the inverter that converts direct current to alternating current. Solar power is direct current (DC), like batteries. All households in America, he explained, run on alternating current (AC). Even appliances that work off of direct current are designed to plug into an alternating current. NASA’s inverter transfers stored solar energy into alternating current with 90 percent efficiency. Bryan and Minnich had to invest money for the wiring and equipment to set up their solar system. After about 10 years, it starts to pay off, Bryan said. They have slowly built up the system. “You can start very small — two panels, a couple of batteries, maybe a few direct current bulbs.” This kind of system would make sense for weekend and summer residents, he said; in fact, he is surprised by the number of second-home owners who do not use solar power, who only or mostly use their second homes in the summer. Bryan and Minnich began with six panels, then rose to 12, and to 18. Because they live in their house year round, they have had to design their system to survive January, February and March, when there is not much sun. They have installed extra panels, and they stock up extra batteries. This time of year though, Bryan said, he pays no attention to his solar system until October. They generate more power in the summer than they can use. California engineers have figured out that solar systems generate extra energy in the hottest months of the year. They have made it easy to sell power back to the state to help power other people’s air-conditioning, Bryan said. One can sell power back to the power grid, but Bryan has never wanted to; he would need to buy a special kind of converter and work very closely with the power company. It is also possible to generate some electricity from solar energy and still buy some through the grid. The solar inverter is set up for that. In fact, Massachusetts is also uniquely set up for “utility interconnect systems,” or houses that produce some of their electricity by solar power and also buy some from electric grid. Christopher Derby-Kilfoyle of BPVS, a solar systems and equipment retail business that is moving into Adams, said MassElectric and Western MassElectric are national leaders in accommodating solar and grid connections. Solar or photovoltaic (PV) technology has been around since the 1950s, he said. It is considered the cleanest source of energy, since sunlight is its only fuel. It is also the first energy system that has no moving parts. Massachusetts is considered a leader in solar technology as well, Derby-Kilfoyle said. Several firms around the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have pioneered in it. Derby-Kilfoyle’s company has been installing PV systems for 17 years. The reason we have a halfway decent solar industry today, Bryan added, is that Jimmy Carter fostered it during his presidency. For a while, the government offered tax credits to people who built solar systems. Carter established the roots of the industry. When Reagan came in, he promptly canceled those tax credits. The industry would have been far larger if it had been nourished by a couple more administrations. Still, solar has been around longer than many people think, Bryan said. More and more building and wiring inspectors understand it. The biggest hurdle to solar-powering a house has often been bureaucracy, he said; it can be harder to get a bank loan on a solar-powered house, for example. Solar Energy Equipment and Systems retailers: New England Solar Electric (Vermont) BVPS (Stamford Vt., and moving to new offices in Adams) Berkshire Solar Sense (Fairway Ave., Pittsfield) Sun Energy (Merrill Rd. Pittsfield) For more information: Nancy Nylen, associate director of the Center for Ecological Technology (CET), recommends the New England Sustainable Energy Association (NESEA)’s web site: www.nesea.org. Christopher Derby-Kilfoyle seconds that recommendation, and adds the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust: www.mtpc.org.
Share
If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Teacher of the Month: Kaylea Nocher

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — First-grade students in Kaylea Nocher's class feel secure and empowered in the classroom, confidently embracing mistakes as they take charge of their learning.
 
This safe and fun atmosphere has earned Nocher the iBerkshires Teacher of the Month designation. The Teacher of the Month series, in collaboration with Berkshire Community College, features distinguished teachers nominated by community members. You can nominate a teacher here. 
 
Nearly a dozen parents and colleagues nominated the Brayton Elementary School teacher, praising her dedication, connection to students, and engaging classroom environment — going above and beyond to foster growth in her students.
 
"My students are the most important part of the job, and instilling love and a love for learning with them is so valuable," she said. 
 
"We have these little minds that we get to mold in a safe and loving environment, and it's really special to be able to do that with them."
 
Nocher has built her classroom on the foundation of love, describing it as the umbrella for all learning. 
 
"If you have your students feel loved… in the sense that they have a love for learning, they have a love for taking risks, they have a love for themselves, and they can use that in everything that they do," she said. 
 
View Full Story

More North Adams Stories

Schools
image description

Teacher of the Month: Kaylea Nocher

Schools
A & E
image description

Weekend Outlook: Hopping Good Fun

A & E
Community News
image description

Build or Rent: Communities Seek Options to House Public Safety...

Community News
Community News
image description

Northern Berkshire United Way: 1950s Sees New Name, Same Mission

Community News
A & E
image description

Weekend Outlook: Dance for a Good Cause

A & E
Community News
image description

North Adams Updated on Schools, Council President Honored With...

Community News
Latest Stories
Previous Next

What's Trending?