WINTER: Sun shines on a green home

By Mary Winter, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Solar energy: It's not just for wacky backyard inventors and hopeless romantics anymore.

Solar energy is for suburbanites.

Take Ben and Aviva Saitz, who live in a 30-year- old split-level in Englewood with their sons, Mack, 9, and Miles, 6, two dogs and a turtle. In October, they installed a 24-panel, state-of-the-art solar electric system on the roof of a bedroom, joining a small but growing club of about 1,000 residential solar users in the state.

The price tag on the Saitzes' system was $38,000. But thanks to upfront tax rebates totaling over $22,000, their out- of-pocket cost was $16,000.

Most of us don't have 16 grand handy; the Saitzes did because they'd been salting money away to remodel their master bath. Now, instead of enjoying a sunken tub with heated towel racks, the Saitzes watch their electricity meter run backward.

It's a thrill to witness your house produce more energy than it's consuming, solar owners say. For several days after his system was installed, Ben Saitz said, he was like a kid, monitoring his meter every three hours.

The system doesn't require batteries in the basement, as Saitz admits he once believed. Instead, the solar panels feed right into the street meter. The panels require little or no maintenance. Appliances run just the same, and Saitz is pleased to report that his neighbors have welcomed the new technology.

The system's frame is visible from the street, but the east-facing glass panels are not, which is fortunate, as they're considered unsightly by some and can raise objections. But the law generally protects a person's right to have solar panels on his roof.

Panels aren't what you'd call beautiful, but technology often isn't. The computer in my family room, for example, looks like hell. But it performs miracles, as do solar panels, so I live with it. And my guess is that solar panels will shrink the way cell phones have.

Saitz started his search for a contractor on the Internet, and after getting bids from a handful of companies, he hired Namaste Solar Electric.

He has high praise for the Boulder company that has installed more than 350 photovoltaic systems in Colorado, including more than 20 at Nyland, a co-housing project in Lafayette. The employee- owned company - all 30 workers get the same salary, and "our organizational chart is a circle," says spokeswoman Heather Leanne Nangle - starts every Tuesday with a round of yoga.

Because their house is 3,000 square feet and they use a lot of energy, the Saitzes chose a five-kilowatt system, bigger than the average residential system of two to three kilowatts.

Namaste told them their system would generate an average of at least 581 kilowatt hours a month, saving them an average of at least $50 a month on power bills. But the savings appear to be much more. Last month, the Saitzes' Xcel bill was $62.87. In November, it was $24.88.

With bills that low, Saitz figures, his initial $16,000 investment will have paid for itself in 10 to 15 years.

But money wasn't the Saitzes' motivation for going solar. "We did it because it seemed like the right thing to do," said Saitz, 39, vice president of client services for the Thornton office of DoubleClick, an Internet ad company.

That statement is typical of solar buyers, said Tom Henley of Xcel Energy. Solar buyers are "environmentally focused," he said, and they have disposable income.

You and I - the taxpayers - also helped. We picked up $22,000 of the Saitzes' $38,000 bill. In 2004, Coloradans passed Amendment 37, committing the state to developing renewable energy, such as wind and solar power. Now, Xcel Energy tacks on an average $1.12 fee to each customer's monthly bill to help make it happen.

Xcel has paid out $19.5 million to homeowners who install solar units. Typically, the home systems cost $18,000 to $26,000, and the upfront rebate from Xcel is $9,000 to $13,000, figured in part on a $2.50-per-watt refund, called a renewable-energy credit, Henley said.

And yes, there are some homeowners in Colorado who don't have to pay Xcel every month but rather get paid by Xcel because their panels are feeding more energy into the grid than the home is consuming, Henley said.

That's what you call solar power.

mwinte@aol.com