The following is some good general information about energy efficiency and solar energy. Please contact us with questions.

ENERGY EFFICIENCY FIRST: If your current monthly energy usage is high, there are probably steps you should take to make your home more efficient before considering solar energy. By addressing problems such as poor windows, or problem west facing windows that add heat when you don't want it, leaky ductwork & return air chases, incandescent lights instead of florescent, inefficient HVAC equipment or inadequate insulation, you can often cut the kWh per month by 30% to 50%. There are companies that perform home energy audits using blower-door testing to locate problems. The Arkansas Energy Office maintains a list of certified energy auditors.

SOLAR WATER HEATING: Solar water heating is usually a pretty good investment with installed costs for the most popular systems for a family of 3 to 5 ranging between $4500 to $5000 installed. In Arkansas these systems will provide around 70% of the hot water load on an annual basis. The best systems use the solar tank for storage only, and supply pre-heated water to your existing tank or tank-less conventional water heater. A solar collector around 4'x10' needs a sunny spot, usually on the roof, that faces generally to the south. The 80 gallon (avg) solar storage tank requires a “footprint” about 30” by 30” adjacent or near to the existing heater. When the sun is shining, a non-freezing fluid is circulated through the collector and a heat exchanger in the tank

SOLAR ELECTRIC: Solar photovoltaic (PV) systems do not at this time enjoy as good of a pay-back. The typical paybacks are in the range of 25 plus years. Even though this is the case, a growing number of PV installations are being installed for a variety of reasons. In some cases off-grid remote power PV systems can compete against the high cost of bringing in utility power. Grid support installations are designed to provide energy to the home and back-up power when the utility power goes down by storing energy in batteries. Grid-tied or net-metering installations do not use batteries but rather any solar energy not used by the home is sent back through the utility meter for credit. Hybrid PV systems that both net-meter and provide back-up power are also available. In Arkansas, each 1kW (1000 watts) of PV array will average around 125kWh production per month. By reviewing your last 12 months utility bills, you can determine the high, low and average kWh usage. By dividing your average kWh by 125, you can determine how many kW of PV array it would take to equal the average. If your home is energy efficient, you may decide to make a portion of your power with PV. Net-metering systems generally average between $6.50 to $10.00 per watt installed and hybrid battery back-up systems add to the costs. As an example, a home using 750kWh divided by 125 kWh equals 6kW or 6000 watts of PV array, multiplied by $7 equals $42,000.00. These numbers are for estimate only so please contact us for further information.