Located in Macedon New York this home is a great example of a renewable energy experience with top quality and detail. This solar electric array was designed with two seperate arrays to keep both winter solar gain and summer solar gain in mind. As you can see the upper panels are covered with snow and the sun room system is totally snow free offering a productive system during the winter months.
Ken and Linda Ossman, Rochester, N.Y.
Our home solar installation could not have been easier. I believe the key is to find a knowledgeable installer. We have a 5,100 W roof-mounted, grid-connected system that went into operation in January 2009. Our installer, Rochester Solar, knew exactly what to do with the paperwork as well the actual construction. After a site survey they wrote a descriptive estimate for the system. Then we went to our town hall and got a building permit with absolutely no hassles. The installer did all the applications for the New York State incentives. This size system costs over $40k. NYS paid half that amount in incentives directly to the installer.
We did have to wait a few months for the state approval. That was because New York ran out of rebate funding and had to have the legislature renew it. Because Rochester Solar was confident of the approval, they pre-ordered materials. When constriction did begin it went smoothly and quickly. Less than two weeks after final approval, all the parts were installed and functional. The installer arranged for independent electrical inspection and we then informed the town to do their inspection to close out the building permit.
The system has now been operating for 10 months and has given us about 6,000 kW-hr of power. Our home is all-electric with a ground-coupled heat pump, so the PV system gives us about half our total electrical needs.
The final, great part of the story is yet to come. When we file our State and Federal income taxes in 2010 we expect to get credits of $5K and $6K respectively. That means our entire cost is under $10K. A simple calculation of the "pay-back" period is less than 13 years at our current electric rate. This is for a system we expect to last more than 25 years!
We think the governments are doing the right thing to promote everyone’s better heath, economic growth, and energy source security.
Macedon New York Solar Home 2009
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