In the past few years, there have been plenty of stories about homeowners turning green. Whether it’s retro-fitting a 100-year-old house with a geothermal heating and cooling system or building a new LEED-certified home, these stories show that alternative energy has grabbed the attention of homeowners tired of skyrocketing gas bills and electrical costs in their century-old homes.
The green movement has been slowly gathering momentum, and one inspired Oak Park homeowner decided to take change into his own hands. Literally. He installed his own solar panel system and lived to tell the tale.
Where preparation meets inspiration
Alan Prechel and his wife purchased their home, a foreclosure in Oak Park, in 2009. At the time, the home had been stripped of almost all materials in the kitchen and necessary mechanicals such as a hot water heater. Knowing the house needed a lot of things to function for their family of four, they started on a major rehab. They chose to be as energy efficient as possible.
“We tried to be as helpful and as healthy as we could be,” Alan said. We needed new kitchen appliances and a few windows and a door, so we did some of the medium- and small-scale actions to make our home more environmentally-friendly.”
The couple took advantage of a ComEd and Nicor Home Energy Savings Program to have the structure properly insulated and sealed, and they realized substantial savings through the program. Already interested in the possibility of solar power, Alan said, they were ready.
“If you want to go solar,” he advised, “go green first. Make your home as energy-efficient as possible because an efficient house requires a smaller and more affordable solar electric system to run it.”
He recommended reducing energy usage by investigating the small measures that really add up. Turn off lights when leaving a room; set the thermostat a few degrees lower in winter or higher in summer. He recommends that everyone use a “Kill-A-Watt meter” that plugs into devices to show how much power a given device consumes.
“The Kill-A-Watt showed me my home server was consuming $18 to $20 a month in electricity, so I upgraded to a newer unit which only uses about $22 per year.”
Research and incentives
Prechel, whose home was included on the 2014 statewide Illinois Solar Tour, said his research started a few years before he began this project.
“While taking my daughter to a playgroup,” he recalled, “we passed a house with solar panels. I decided to write a note to ask about the system, and the owners did get back to me. That planted a seed in my mind.”
He combed through the family’s old ComEd bills to figure out their annual electricity usage.
“I needed to calculate how many panels we would need. Based on the steps we’d already taken, primarily the sealing and insulation, we went from using 10,500 kilowatts to 9,300 a year.
“I did a bunch of research and got a few quotes,” he noted. “I’m a handy guy, and I’m comfortable on the roof, so I figured I could save a lot of money by purchasing and installing the system myself.”
Prechel spent hours on-line researching appropriate materials and installation methods, as well as state and federal rebate programs. In October of 2013, when he had a rough idea of what the system would cost to buy and install, he applied for Illinois state grants and was awarded the funds in December. Once the project was complete, he submitted his final paperwork to the state and received 25% of total costs in the form of a check. The federal program provides a 30% rebate in the form of an income tax credit that the Prechels hope to realize this spring. All told, he earned roughly $8,750 in incentives and had out-of-pocket expenses of roughly $7,250.
Once-in-a-lifetime purchase
He learned about American-based companies that could provide the materials he needed.
“I saved 15% of the total costs by being a smart consumer,” he said. “I wanted to do my best to buy American-made goods because this is a once-in-a-lifetime purchase.”
He needed 29 panels for his home’s energy needs, but it was cheaper to buy the panels by the pallet, which includes 30 panels, so he purchased the entire pallet. He chose a system design that consisted of one central inverter with per panel optimizers, which maximizes each panel’s production individually and avoids overall system inefficiencies. The solar panels on the roof generate a DC current, which is then converted to the AC current needed to run the home by the inverter in the home’s basement.
Prechel said he saved a lot of money by doing research and providing the bulk of the labor himself. “It’s something everybody can do. I’m not saying everybody can go up on the roof to do an install, but even if you choose an installer, you can still shop around and buy your own materials. Everyone, myself included, has to hire a licensed electrician to connect to the grid.”
Environmental and financial impact
Prechel calculated that his home needed 9,300 kilowatt hours of electricity generation, so he set out to design a system that would meet his home’s complete electrical needs. Solar systems have an expected life span of 25 years, and they pay for themselves during their lifespan. Often they do so much earlier than you might expect, he noted. His formula divides the total spent on the system, minus any incentives, by the estimated annual production in terms of utility credits. By his reasoning, he should break even on his system in about 9.75 years.
“Most people want to know, am I going to get my money back and how soon, and the answer to that is ‘yes’ and ‘it depends,'” he said. “People also ask if the system is meeting our expectations, and the answer is yes, with an asterisk. Shortly after we finished the installation, we purchased an electric car, a Chevy Volt, and I did not factor its electrical needs into my calculations when planning the system. While our electrical consumption has gone up from my estimates, it is more than offset by our savings in gas for the car.”
An ardent environmentalist, Prechel thinks solar energy has a personal as well as financial payoff.
“I believe going solar is the right thing to do for those who are able,” he said. If everyone had a solar electric system, we’d eliminate the energy crisis. If many people adopted electric cars, we would not be dependent on fossil fuels. As an Eagle Scout, I am aware of many negative ecological changes in the world, and I am doing what I can to preserve the environment I enjoyed so much while growing up, so that my own children can experience it for themselves. I hope our story inspires others to do the same.”