I have quite a bit of experience with solar systems in terms of remote telecommunications facilities where utility power isn't practical. These involve large battery banks and over-engineering to ensure reliable power for radio, microwave, and telephone relay stations that need to be up 24/7.

So, the idea of a solar system in a suburban area with plentiful utility power didn't make sense to me at first. Electricity is readily available at reasonable rates. It would be satisfying but not practical to pull the plug on Edison.

Then, I stumbled across a mention of solar "co-generation" on Southern California Edison’s website. Co-generation is when a customer connects a source of power such as solar or wind into the electric grid. With solar, California supplies a rebate to pay part of the cost, and the federal government provides an additional tax credit.

On further research I found the idea of co-generation kind of exciting. I can use the entire utility grid as my energy storage. I don't need a battery and I don’t need to design the system any bigger than my load.

I was also considering my electric vehicle (Chevy Volt). I decided the convenience of the 240-volt charger was worth it. Rebates cover half the cost of the charger and installation. If I came home from a day trip with a depleted battery I could plug in for a couple of hours and then go out to dinner on electricity. However, the Volt would be away from home when my solar panels would be generating power from the sun.

With co-generation, I just produce more power than I need when the sun shines, feed it to Edison, and then pull power from Edison at night to run my home and charge the car. I also switched to a rate plan that gives me much lower electric rates at night and credits me at higher rates in the daytime when the sun is shining and I'm producing electricity. Some friends were predicting that the Volt would cause my electric bill to skyrocket –ha!

[Click image to see more...]

As luck would have it, I have a great roof for solar. It is south-facing and doesn't have any vents or obstructions. I had enough area to install panels that could generate about 4kW peak power. I'm good with my hands and have a lot of experience with wiring and electrical things. My initial plan was to install the solar as well as the level 2 car charger myself.

I quickly changed my mind about installing the solar because I'm not comfortable with the permit process and roof penetrations kind of scare me. I shopped around and chose Coastal Constructors to provide the hardware, do the mechanical work and take care of the permit paperwork. They did the wiring at the same time as they wired the charger, and everything passed inspection. Modern panels are a lot better looking than the earlier ones. I'm very happy with the appearance as well as the performance.

Another modification I considered was the inverter systems. Most grid-tied systems connect a number of panels in a series string to produce high-voltage DC, and then put in a large wall-mounted inverter to convert this to conventional AC power. I was not excited about this design. A fault in one panel can bring down a whole string. Due to the high DC voltages, the wiring is complicated.

I discovered a company in the Bay Area, Enphase, that does things differently. They manufacture micro-inverters. Each micro-inverter handles the output from one solar panel. One mounts underneath each panel and they connect in parallel. If one panel or inverter goes bad, the rest of the array keeps going. The DC wiring is low-voltage and needs no conduit.

In addition, my solar system has its own website that not only shows real-time and historical data for every panel, but can also alert me if there's ever a problem. If there's debris such as bird droppings on or an electrical problem affecting one panel, the other panels are not affected, and I get an email describing the issue and showing me which panel is in trouble.

It's now been in service for almost 10 months. I've ”banked” a bit over 6 megawatt-hours of electricity with Edison. Carbon offset a bit over 4 tons. Every month since installation I've produced more electricity than I've consumed. Not only am I driving on daylight, I'm powering my house with it and even providing solar energy to my neighbors via the grid-tie.

Kermit was wrong. It's easy being green. Take a look at my solar production >

Michel Saint-Sulpice is a gentle soul who takes his responsibility for the planet seriously, and always has. Growing up in France, his family was careful with resources, and he has carried forth that strong environmental ethic into his adult life as a Santa Barbara architect.

Michel aspires to be fossil fuel free by the end of 2012, and he’s well on his way. Solar panels provide his home with electricity, and he’s been driving a Toyota Prius since the second generation first hit the market. He completely removed his lawn to make room for a beautiful drought tolerant landscape. Greywater and collected rain water (with back-up well water) will soon irrigate a “food forest.” On the drawing board is a geothermal system that will heat the entire house (with cooling option), all his domestic water and his swimming pool year round. Since Michel produces all his electricity, his carbon footprint will be zero, and he will not be paying electric and gas bills any longer. He has taken these measures to express his deep appreciation for nature and beauty.

Recently, however, Michel took his environmental commitment to a new level, after attending a screening of “Revenge of the Electric Car,” co-sponsored by CEC in October. He was so inspired by the film and the subsequent panel of speakers (the director, two of the film’s stars, a Chevy Volt owner and a Nissan Leaf owner) that he went out and bought an all-electric Nissan Leaf the next day!

Before seeing the film, Michel had done his homework and knew he wanted to take advantage of the current government incentives to promote electric vehicles. But that night, he knew the time was right.

The added bonus for Michel is that when he plugs in his new electric vehicle at home, he has enough solar panels (63 of them!) on his roof to power his home and the car. In fact, Michel is part of a growing group of “early adopters” who are driving around town in cars powered by sunshine instead of oil.

One hour’s worth of the sun’s rays hitting earth could supply all of earth’s electricity needs for a year. Only if it could be captured, that is. Michel captures as much of that sunlight as he can, to power his life and energize his spirit. He envisions a future where all households are run efficiently and powered by the sun. Part of his life’s pleasure is working towards achieving this himself, and extending his grace (and extra energy) towards others.

I never go to gas stations anymore. I’ve stopped giving oil companies my money. I feel a bit like a junkie who’s finally starting to kick her addiction.

It started with changing a light bulb or two. Then I started eating more local food from a CSA and less meat (Cows are up there with cars when it comes to emissions.) They were little things, like deciding to only buy California wine (not a major a sacrifice!). But they were enough to make me start realizing that there are things I can DO besides wring my hands when it comes to reducing my carbon footprint. I went a little further -- creating a video that has over 60,000 views on YouTube (link in footer) and a website on ocean acidification. However, I was still using electricity and driving a minivan.

My husband and I are not generally early adopters. We're careful with money. But we did our research, and so our next step was not just a vote for a new technology, but a practical move as well. We put ourselves on a waiting list for the Nissan Leaf, an all-electric car. In the meantime, we got solar panels on our house, producing way more energy than we needed for our energy-efficient house -- specifically planning for the electric car. That meant that when we got the car this summer, we just drove home and plugged it into the sun.

We haven’t invested in a charging station. We just use a regular outlet. We charge it overnight and can drive up to 100 miles on a charge. We try to maximize all our miles on it, so sometimes we get low on miles. Once when we got low, we stopped at my in-law's house, plugged it in there, went for a pleasant walk while it charged a bit, and then headed home. But generally speaking, 100 mile range is more than enough. It re-charges when you are stopping and going downhill so you can drive it up the mountain, and then watch it recharge all the way down.

The Nissan Leaf fits my two kids and a dog, and handles better than any car I've ever driven. And I really love never having to stop for gas! But it wasn't until a friend's daughter stopped by the other night with a bunch of her college-age friends to show off the car, and when another friend's 13-year old daughter took a picture of it with her smartphone to share with her friends, that I realized that while we chose it sight unseen purely to reduce our emissions, we've found ourselves driving something that really is very cool.

And indeed, with its touch-screen and rear camera, it feels like a luxury car, but without the luxury price. In fact, a $5,000 tax rebate we got covers the lease for the first year. Since we don’t pay for gas, the car is essentially free right now.

Obviously solar panels aren’t free, but they are a sound investment. We spent $18,000 after tax rebates on lots of solar panels. Here’s the simple math: $50/month electric bill + $200/month gasoline bill = payoff in 6 years. Electric is a lot cheaper than gasoline so it’s not exactly a fair comparison. But with expected inflation in electric costs and the fact we can now get paid for excess energy we produce, it still makes sense from a strictly economic perspective.

I can’t kid myself that I’m home free when it comes to the environment. What about the energy used to make my new electric car? What about all those plane flights we like to take? However, I am closer than I have ever been to feeling like it is indeed possible to be carbon neutral.

A few years ago, when my son was about 6, he liked me to read him Calvin & Hobbes comics. In one comic, Calvin says, “Hey mom, what’s this I hear about the greenhouse effect?” “They say the pollutants we dump in the air are trapping in the sun’s heat and its going to melt the polar ice caps!” “Sure, YOU’LL be gone when it happens, but I won’t! Nice planet you’re leaving me!”

His mom says, “This from the kid who wants to be chauffeured any place more than a block away.”

Calvin replies, “Hey, nobody told me about the ice caps, all right?”

Re-reading this comic to my young son 20 years after it was written in 1989, I realized how long I’ve known about global warming. And it’s not just theoretical anymore. The ice caps are melting. Disasters of all sorts (fires, floods, hurricanes, droughts) are increasing, and this is with 1-2 degrees of warming -- not the 11 or so that may happen in my children's lifetime. It will get worse, but our actions now determine how much worse.

The good news is that the technology now exists to dramatically reduce our emissions -- if we’re willing to make doing so a priority. And, at least in the case of things like the electric car, it’s actually a whole lot of fun!

Suppose you had dinner guests whose trip to your table covered thousands of miles and took several weeks. Surely that would represent a special occasion, and you would probably forgive them for being a bit listless and travel weary from their journey. You might even overlook the large energy expenditure and carbon footprint it took to reach you. But what if this situation was repeated every day, for every meal? That would be crazy, right?

Indeed it would be crazy, and yet that is very nearly what happens in the average American household. Only it's not dinner guests that travel great distances, but rather the food itself. The typical meal item originates more than 1,500 miles away and spends weeks or more being processed, packaged, shipped, and stored before ever reaching your plate. Are you willing to forgive listless, travel-weary food that has a large carbon footprint?

My wife Gina and I decided we are not willing, and so for the last few years we've been eating a more local, environmentally-responsible diet. In fact, we just spent the month of October participating in the Eat Local Challenge, with a goal of eating only foods grown or produced within 100 miles of our Goleta home. The following is an accounting of all the food we ate, where it originated, and some reflections on the experience.

Food sources

The ultimate in being a locavore is to walk out into the yard and gather some food just moments before preparing and eating it. We have a productive, healthy garden which provides roughly half of our fruits and vegetables, along with abundant eggs from our happy chickens! From just outside our door we have apples, oranges, tomatoes, garlic, peppers, herbs (rosemary, time, oregano, cilantro), squash, carrots, lemons, figs, strawberries, lettuce, cabbage, beets, chard, and eggs. We also had blueberries harvested in the spring and stored in the freezer (powered by rooftop photovoltaic panels).

The next best source of local food is the Farmers' Market, and we are fortunate to have good ones every week here on the south coast. During October we patronized those growers with farms within 100 miles. From them we bought almonds, grapes, squash, carrots, lettuce, potatoes, dry beans, onions, broccoli, cauliflower, strawberries, avocados, walnuts, spinach, corn, peppers, and leeks. We also had local free-range beef and chicken, as well as cheese made from the milk of Santa Barbara county dairy cows. We used Santa Ynez honey the entire month instead of sugar, and twice we bought bread made by the Solvang Pie Company using locally-grown wheat.

We did visit grocery stores a couple times during the month, and in particular, the Isla Vista Food Co-op was a great surrogate when we missed the Farmers' Market. From them we bought locally-grown lettuce, broccoli, and apples, as well as wine and olive oil made in Santa Barbara County.

Exceptions to the rule

I must confess that we had some "cheats" or exceptions to the 100-mile rule. We got milk and yogurt from the Straus Family Creamery, an organic dairy in Sonoma County. They use returnable glass bottles, thus cutting down on wasteful packaging. We allowed ourselves a few other small indulgences with local connections: coffee from Handlebar Coffee Roasters in Santa Barbara, tortillas and chips from La Tolteca, and ice cream from McConnell's. We also made an exception for spices and condiments, although you might think our definition of a condiment was a bit liberal... for example, parmesan cheese and caramel sauce fell in this category!

Reflections

Gina and I choose to eat local for many reasons. We believe the industrial food system is too reliant on toxic chemicals and fossil fuels, so we prefer to support local farmers and ranchers who practice environmentally-responsible agriculture. There is something comforting about buying a piece of fruit directly from the farmer who grew it, knowing that it was picked recently and only a few miles away.

We also found during October that we had significantly less trash because very little of our food had packaging. Our meals didn't come from a box or jar with a lengthy ingredient list; instead we prepared everything from scratch. It took more planning and time, but the end result was worth it. Ironically, our food budget during October was lower than normal, primarily because we eliminated junk calories and processed foods, and we never wasted leftovers. Eating local doesn't need to be more expensive.

Modern society has become disconnected from food in many ways. People don't really know what they are eating and how it got to their table, and yet the negative impacts on health and the environment are profound. Choosing to eat local is a major step in the right direction. It reconnects us with our food, and perhaps most significantly, the food tastes better!

Steve Lange works here in Santa Barbara at Magellan’s Travel Supplies as the Web Production Manager. He used to commute to Camarillo, which would take 45 minutes to 1 hour each way. Sitting in his car in all the traffic for such a long commute was stressful and boring at the same time.

He knew he could do better.

When Steve started his current job in Santa Barbara he started biking for every day travel. During the work week, he hops on his Xtracycle – a longtail bike with extra room for cargo and/or his two sons. When he bikes to work, he drops the eldest boy off at elementary school and then bikes in to the office.

Not only does Steve’s family reduce carbon emissions with their bike commute, but they also avoid stressful morning traffic and enjoy the fresh morning air before the day begins.

Biking on the weekends has also become a part of their family’s activities. They love to load up their Xtracycle with camping gear on weekends or bike out to Ellwood for a beach day.

After he made the switch to a bike, he was reminded of the inconvenient aspects of driving his car that he had grown accustomed to. The process of finding the closest parking lot, then waiting in line to park, then finding a spot, and then worrying about how long the car can stay in the lot... It’s nuts.

Like most people, it took a mental leap for Steve to transition out of his drive-everywhere-for-everything mentality. Today he uses whatever mode of transportation is most appropriate for the task. If the trip is under 3-5 miles, he finds it is usually faster to bike than to drive, as bikes can roll right up to a destination without the hassle of parking. While he still uses a car from time to time, he advises “don’t get stuck in one way of thinking. There are many ways to get around – just pick the one that makes the most sense.”

Everything clicked for Steve once he made the switch to an alternative commute: he dropped 40 pounds, he doesn’t have to deal with a car for short trips, and he enjoys Santa Barbara more. He feels like he’s getting away with something, like he’s leading a better life than most people because he bikes for transportation.

Who knew it could be so simple?

Almost every product and service we rely on today is manufactured with or transported by some amount of fossil fuels. Of course, the most important thing we can do to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels is to use less. However, when you do make a purchase, we encourage you to shop for energy-smart products that use less energy.

Here at CEC, we're all about energy-smart products that help us move towards a fossil-free lifestyle and a fossil-free future for Santa Barbara.

Last time, you heard about Kathi’s reusable produce bags and today, we're hearing from Christa Backson, CEC's Office Manager.

Favorite eco-product: “Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture” by Toby Hemenway
Price: $19.77

I’ve been an avid gardener since childhood, and for years have grown most of my family’s produce in our own backyard. Several years ago, my daughter, husband and I dug up our front lawn and planted food there as well. This gave us much more land to work with and also reminded passersby that there were other options besides maintaining a water-wasting stretch of grass.

Santa Barbara is the ideal place to grow fresh, healthy food year round.  In our yard space we are able to seasonally harvest, beets, carrots, lettuce, cucumbers, string beans, tomatoes, squash, berries, apples, plums, apricots, kale, chard, broccoli, cauliflower, onions, garlic, potatoes, lemons, limes, oranges, avocados and many other vegetables, herbs and flowers!

By growing so much of our own food, we support a locally sourced food community. Not only is this a delicious way to eat, but it also helps reduce my family’s dependence on fossil fuels. Think about all the gasoline needed to transport food into Santa Barbara -- not to mention the amount of plastic packaging and shipping materials that are involved in transporting produce from out of the area. A short walk from the garden to the kitchen is the only transportation that our food needs, no packaging necessary! We’re also helping eliminate the fossil fuels used in big agribusiness’s fertilizers and equipment.

Get started on your own edible landscape by reading my favorite eco-smart product: “Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture” by Toby Hemenway. It is an excellent book full of practical information for the beginner, as well as a great resource for more experienced gardeners. I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to develop a healthy food production ecology in their own back (and front) yards.  And along with the healthy harvest, you will be contributing to a cleaner, fossil fuel free environment.

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You can get a copy of Christa’s book recommendation at CEC's Amazon Store in the Books (Food) section. We hope you'll find an idea to inspire you. If you find something you like, a percentage of your purchase comes back to CEC.

Did you miss one of our favorite things? Catch up and read them all in Our Favorite Things blog category.

I never intended to be green. I confess to having owned and thoroughly enjoyed driving a Plymouth Barracuda equipped with a big-block V8 and twin four-barrel carburetors in my younger days. I'm a technology geek, so interesting and elegantly engineered technology has always appealed to me, cars included.

The Prius Era

Think back to the 2004 Prius. Yes, it got great gas mileage, but that car was thinking out of the box. It was visually different from any car on the market, a little geeky but kind of cool in a VW Bug sort of way. Plus, the tech was awesome for 2004. It had voice recognition, electronic entry, cool sound system, navigation, bluetooth, all of the bells and whistles. Technology geeks like myself were buzzing about it, so I got on the waiting lists at a couple of dealerships. As I was waiting and reading, other techies started talking delivery and my anticipation began building.

Boom - out of nowhere, I saw an online posting about a dealer in Barstow that had a red Prius, fully loaded. I was on the phone in a flash, closed the deal, and hopped on a Greyhound to Barstow the next day. It was a very cool car, a technology wonder, and a whale of a lot of fun.

The cool tech has changed me. I find myself becoming greener and greener. Watching my MPG readout has become a video game. Could I beat my old high score? Could I get 600 miles on one tank (11 gallons)? Plus, using the old line, "Come here often?" to that Hummer driver at the gas station who gave me weird looks, well *that* was sheer joy.

Fast-forward 7 years. The Prius has over 110,000 miles on it. It's never had a brake job and isn't going to need one for a long time to come. The engine, likewise, doesn't have the wear and tear that you would expect after that kind of mileage.

Into the World of EVs

The buzz shifted in 2009. Spotting another Prius on the road isn't a rare event anymore. They're everywhere. The new buzz was about going to the next level. People started talking about adding battery capacity to the Prius to increase the storage capacity and hence the mileage. I heard a lot about the electric Tesla, which was way out of my price range, but would blow the doors off of my old Barracuda. Then I started hearing rumors of an electric Chevy.

A co-worker had a chance to drive an EV-1 back in the day and still raved about it. Pretty soon the talk about the Volt really spiked. I was interested. The Prius was still going strong but I was ready to explore. I went to the GM websites, followed the buzz, and visited the local Chevrolet dealer. They had lots of slick color brochures on Chevy trucks, Corvette, Camaro, etc. but nothing solid on the Volt. I left the dealership with a black-and-white photocopy of the PDF from the GM website stapled to the guy's business card. “Not ready to take an order but I'll take your card. Don't call us, we'll call you.”

I wanted this car.

July 2010 rolls around and California is one of the first markets. They're available for pre-order and the Santa Barbara dealer is on the Volt list. Back I go. Different salesman. This time I left with a grainier photocopy copied from the first, stapled to another business card. At least he wrote my name down and said he'd call.

I returned to the fan sites and blogs. After a few weeks, people are posting confirmed order numbers and target build dates. The GM sites were exploding with new information.

Back to Graham I go. I make an appointment with the guy who previously sold me a car there. I walk into the dealership with my checkbook literally in my hand. The sharks are circling as soon as I step onto the lot. A Volt? “Well, I'll put your name on *my* list, which is better than that other guy's list, and we'll call you and you can come back in a few days and put down a $5,000 deposit. We don't know how many we're getting or when. Don't call us, we'll call you.”

Oh-kaay....

What's going on? It's now coming up on Labor Day 2010. I pick up the phone and call the Chevy dealer in Lompoc. "We have 4 Volts allocated to us out of the first build cycle and one is sold. Come on up and give us a $500 refundable deposit. We sell at sticker, no markup."

Well, Lompoc is 40 miles away but it’s worth the drive. 20 minutes after walking in the door I have my very own GM order number. 40 miles just happens to be the electric range on the Volt. Welcome to my next video game. When I pick it up fully charged, could I make it home without using any gas?

There's a $7,500 federal tax credit and my car rolls off the assembly line just before GM shuts down for Christmas. I picked up the car on December 30, 2010. I made it with 2 days to spare. I lost the video game, though. The gas engine came on at Winchester Canyon. I guess I'll have to practice my technique.

Nine months and 7,000 miles later my best all-electric range is 46 miles. I've filled the 9-gallon tank 6 times, typically on trips to Los Angeles. It's a very rare day that I use any gasoline at all tooling around town. The dashboard indicator says my oil life is down to 80% so I guess I'll need to get it changed in another year or so.

I guess I'm green now, but the cool tech made me do it.

I love this car.

On August 9th, 2011 I saw the wheel on my electric service meter go backwards for the first time, and it was a wonderful, almost giddy feeling. Finally, my house was using the sun's rays to silently create the electricity I would be using to run the lights, appliances, computers, and other plug-in components of my life. I couldn't be happier.

I've followed the development of solar energy's capability to create electricity commercially for a long time. I was so disappointed in the early days to see that alternatives to oil and gas couldn't get the funding necessary to get started – that petroleum companies couldn't or wouldn't embrace the opportunity of being energy companies and fund the research and development of alternative energy sources themselves.

My life and my jobs kept me moving around from place to place for many years, but finally, 15 years ago, I settled down in Goleta and bought a house. I considered investing in solar panels from time to time through the years since then. The cost was the main obstacle, but I also needed to investigate my alternatives so I could make the best choice. I also had the nagging feeling that if I waited, the technology and therefore the cost would make it more affordable and efficient.

In the meantime, I've done what I could to live my life with the conservation of our natural resources in mind and to limit my contribution to waste and pollution. I drive my car (a Prius) as infrequently as possible, opting for biking and sharing rides and just not going to some events that require driving. I have rain barrels and a compost bin, a worm bin, and a community garden – the garden is shared with friends who can't have gardens of their own. I wash and reuse plastic zipped-locked bags and cut paper towels in half down the middle (something my Mother used to do). I hang my clothes to dry on a line in the backyard and on nifty clothes racks. My light bulbs are the energy efficient kind, of course, and my Christmas lights are LEDs. And I've finally trained myself to keep cloth bags in my car and with my bike and take them with me into the grocery store.

The Community Environmental Council's (CEC) Solarize Santa Barbara program came along at the same time that I decided that it was a good time to get out of one of my mutual fund investments. With the CEC taking on the hard work of choosing particular solar panel contractors to work with and negotiating reasonable costs and a rebate, it was obviously the time for me to get serious about installing solar panels. The process of signing up and getting an initial estimate was so easy. I was able to review the estimated costs and projected savings and talk to a representative from the REC Solar, the company that I was assigned to work with.

During this preliminary step, I pondered seriously whether installing solar panels was worth the cost and whether the projected 13-year payback period was a show-stopper. I was finally convinced that it was the right thing to do – good for the environment, a way to support the solar service companies, and a better investment for my money than the stock market. The immediate rebate and the Federal Tax Credit for solar installations also factored into my decision.

The installation process was trouble-free. Two very nice and experienced REC employees spent about a day and a half installing the racks, inverter unit, the panels, and the electric conduit from the panels to the inverter and then to my fuse box. Even though it was a foggy day when it was finally hooked up, the electric meter was going backward right before my eyes! It was a wonderful thing to see! I'm so glad the CEC's Solarize Santa Barbara program came along at the right time for me and that I was smart enough to take advantage of it.

Tucked away on a peaceful cul-de-sac that backs up to Elings Park, Dan Emmett's home wouldn't be thought of as an environmental statement at first glance. The solar paneled roof – barely visible except from the upper lawn in the back yard – might even go unnoticed. But Dan and others like him are starting a quiet revolution, built around the idea that solar electricity can power their homes, hot tubs, and even cars.

Dan and his partner Henri Bristol had a 3.5 kW solar panel system installed on their house last year, in part because they were expecting delivery of one of the first all-electric vehicles to be sold by a major car manufacturer, the Nissan Leaf. "I signed up for the Leaf the day they opened the waiting list – even before the cars had been manufactured," he says.

As CEO of a solar energy startup company, Dan wanted to get as close as possible to driving without fossil fuels. "I didn't want to just get a hybrid; I wanted to be completely off petroleum. I wanted my only trips to the gas station to be to be for a pit stop," he says.

"I like the security of knowing that if something were to happen – an earthquake, disruption to the supply of gasoline, or other crisis – I can still get around," he says. "I love how quiet the car is, and also how clean – no tailpipe, no emissions. My bedroom is above the garage, so I like the peace of mind of not having fumes or combustibles just a few feet under my pillow."

He also points out the financial benefits. By day, if his solar panels are generating more electricity than he's using, that electricity is fed into the Southern California Edison grid, where he avoids paying the highest peak period rates of 55 cents per kWh. At midnight, when he charges the car under special "time of use" rates for electric vehicle owners, he pays 10 cents per kWh.

For the most part – like most electric vehicle owners – Dan charges his car battery at home. When he was on the waiting list for his Nissan Leaf, the company sent out a licensed electrician, who recommended that he install a 220-volt charging unit in his garage. "The car does come with a charging kit for a 110-volt outlet, but they call that a 'trickle charge.' It is very slow – you wouldn't even get a full charge overnight." He opted for the 220-volt charging unit, the cost of which was partially offset by a federal tax credit.

With the solar panels on his roof and the new charging station in his garage, Dan was almost ready to leave Santa Barbara in his sunshine-powered car. He just had one problem – something electric vehicle drivers call 'range anxiety' or the fear of running out of juice. He recalls, "I didn't just have range anxiety, I had range panic. I made it to L.A. on the original charge, but it was really dicey – I was in heavy traffic, and I had two miles left on the battery when I got to my destination. When they said that the car had 100 to 120 mile range, I knew that was variable, but my trip was 87 miles door-to-door and I thought I would have more leeway." Since then, he's gotten more accustomed to driving electric and is a pro at finding public charging stations on longer trips.

"It's amazing where technology is – everything is intuitive and transparent. To anyone who is thinking about doing something similar, I would say do it. You will see your gasoline bills and electricity bills go away. It's a lifestyle choice that I think is only going to get easier as the technology improves."

Article modified from original submission to Seasons Magazine.

Dr. Timothy Rodgers and his wife Pamela live in a 1948 home near Hendry's Beach. Over the years, they've been on a mission to retrofit their home to make more energy efficient. They've replaced single paned windows with double paned, added insulation to the attic, and replaced halogen lights with LEDs. Making a home more efficient is highly recommended before adding solar panels because "you don't want to have to pay for a system that's any larger than you need," Timothy says.

After talking with 6-8 solar contractors and getting several bids, he contracted with REC Solar to install an 8.4 kW solar system on a hillside on his property in 2009. "We went with an 18-year lease – they do all the maintenance, manage any equipment that might break, and will replace the inverter when it dies, which is expected to be after 10 years."

Recently, Timothy was ready to make another statement reflecting his environmental ethic. "I love cars, and I like the idea of electric cars. When the price of gas hit $4.50/gallon, I thought 'that's it!' First, I went to test drive the Tesla Roadster, then I went to the Community Environmental Council's Earth Day Festival, which includes a large Green Car Show. There were three Tesla owners showing their personal vehicles. I was still on the fence, but hearing them rave about their experiences really helped." He ordered an electric blue Tesla Roadster that week.

The only concern that Timothy had was with the range of the car; in electric vehicles circles, this is known as "range anxiety." Although he still owns a gas-fueled sedan, he wanted to see how the Tesla would handle on a longer trip to San Francisco. Because public charging stations are just starting to come online, his ideal midpoint stopping place – King City – didn't have a station. Instead he stopped for a couple of hours in Atascadero and briefly in Salinas, both times refueling at a Rabobank, which offered free public charging, fueled by solar panels on the roofs "so I was still driving on sunshine, even away from home."

Despite what might seem like complex technology, Roger repeatedly said that the process to install solar and purchase an electric vehicle was seamless, with user-friendly systems that allows him to engage with the technology. "There is a transmitter on my solar inverter that sends out data on the amount of electricity that I generate and use, which I can pull up on my computer," said Timothy. "It's kind of nerdy, but I like to see how I'm doing."

Combining solar panels and electric vehicles makes ditching fossil fuels closer than ever. Transportation and home energy costs make up the vast majority of the average person's energy use. By eliminating reliance on dirty energy in these areas, Fossil Free by '33 is well within reach.

Article modified from original submission to Seasons Magazine.

Almost every product and service we rely on today is manufactured with or transported by some amount of fossil fuels. Of course, the most important thing we can do to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels is to use less. However, when you do make a purchase, we encourage you to shop for energy-smart products that use less energy.

Here at CEC, we're all about energy-smart products that help us move towards a fossil-free lifestyle and a fossil-free future for Santa Barbara. Last time you heard about Eileen's favorite clothesline. In this edition of Our Favorite Things, we're hearing from Kathi King, CEC's Rethink the Drink and Donor Relations Manager.

Favorite eco-product: Mesh produce bags (also good for delicate laundry and travel toiletries)
Price: $10 for five
Owned it for: 2 years

As an advocate for alternatives to plastic grocery bags, I'm often asked about the plastic produce bags on rolls inside the market. Those are not likely going anywhere soon, even if communities ban the carryout bags. Produce bags also generally fly under the radar when we talk about plastics data.

We know that in California we use about 16 BILLION plastic bags per year (that's 600 per second), but the numbers don't get crunched on produce bags.

Both types of bags are made from non-renewable resources (oil and natural gas) and, if they enter the environment, they photodegrade into tiny bits, creating pollution for hundreds of years.

The good news is there are reusable options for produce bags just as there are for carryout bags. They are reasonably priced, durable and very lightweight. I even stick one inside the Chico bag in my handbag so there's one handy for those unexpected stops to the store. They also wash and hang dry nicely.

While reusable bags are becoming wonderfully ubiquitous in local stores, produce bags are only beginning to find an audience. No one asks me about the reusable bags in my cart, but I get frequent questions about my collection of produce bags, even at the farmer's market. Last weekend my husband gave one away to an especially inquisitive woman!

The one drawback to reusable produce bags, whether made from mesh, muslin or nylon is that they don't keep refrigerated produce quite as fresh as the plastic bag. My family's solution to this is to take a produce bag from the grocery store every once in a while and reuse it as long as possible. Shaking them out, turning them inside out and air drying them before reusing are all ways to lengthen their life span. We keep a bag of produce bags in a kitchen drawer and transfer our perishables to them once we get home. A side benefit of this is we've become quite creative about saving and reusing other types of plastic packaging (e.g. bread wrappers).

If you're already in the habit of remembering your carryout reusable bags to the store, it's easy to increase your environmental halo by adding a handful of reusable produce bags to your collection.

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You can get a few reusable produce bags at CEC's Amazon Store in the Reusable Bags section. If you find something you like, a percentage of your purchase comes back to CEC. We hope you'll find an idea to inspire you.

Did you miss one of our favorite things? Catch up and read them all in Our Favorite Things blog category.

Stay tuned to hear from our next CEC staffer, Christa Backson, about her favorite energy-smart product.

Envision a future when your electrical production comes from the "solar garden" on your roof, when you can get around town in a plug-in car powered by clean energy (which the roof system will now support), and when your food production comes from the garden in your back yard. You are guaranteed a reduction in your monthly electrical bills, gasoline bills and food bills.

It's this vision of the future that motivates me on my lifelong journey toward energy sustainability. I have been tapping away at this challenge for more than 40 years and I am on the right path. I visualize my journey in 4 phases:

• Electricity production – Complete.
  Solar panels and a 10 kW wind generator are all up and running. The electrical portion was quite possibly the most complicated and expensive step. My original estimation was that the monthly savings that I would enjoy, once the system was up and running, would allow me to pay off the initial cost of the system in a little over ten years. With AB 920 becoming available, this time period will be reduced. Check out my bill from April...
  
  
• Transportation – In progress.
  My six year old Prius is a transitional car that has religiously produced a 40 mpg average. I am looking forward to see what the transition to the next generation of electric cars will produce.
  
  
• Food sustainability – In progress.
  My extensive experience with organic gardening and Santa Barbara Heirloom Nursery will greatly assist me in accomplishing this goal.
  
  
• Conservation, awareness, consciousness, education – In progress.
  I remain aware of my energy choices on a daily basis and take action to conserve everywhere I can. We have dual glazed windows and a sod roof in our home; architectural design that maximizes the site location; solar pumps for water well and koi pond. We're also raising children with this energy consciousness as a template.

As food, electricity and gasoline prices continue to go up, I know that my long range plans will be productive and would be productive for anyone. It's really pretty simple and altogether achievable.

Hopefully one day my grandson will look back on all of this and be able to see my vision of the future. He'll know that his family played a small but significant part in promoting sustainability and will do his part to promote it in his own life.

This month marks our one year solar power anniversary. Am I still a happy solar camper? You betcha!

Based on my calculations from the last year, we generated 555 kWh more than what we used. That's right -- we generated an extra half a megawatt hour. In the previous year we consumed 8,561 kWh. The year before that, 9,260 and before that, 9,779 (so year over year our consumption was decreasing as we became more energy conscious). For more information on kWh check out: http://www.carbonlighthouse.com/2010/08/kwh-vs-kw/

 

Enough KWH... How much money did I save?

Annual Cycle	kWh	Bill	Savings
2010-11	-555	$17.86	-$1,356.92
2009-10	8561	$1,374.78	-$59.32
2008-09	9260	$1,434.10	-$157.86
2007-08	9779	$1,591.96

 

 

 

 

 

We saved $1,357 dollars in the last year on electricity. Yes, we "paid" less than 20 bucks for electricity for the entire year. ("Paid" because our last bill ended up becoming a credit so we've been working off that credit.) We're now down to -$117, i.e. at 2 bucks or less we might not be paying a bill for a long while.

And guess what? The California Assembly passed a bill which was signed in 2009 (AB920) where we're going to be paid BACK by the Electric company for that extra 555 kWh we generated. Yep, we're going to bill the electric company! We just got a letter this week saying they are trying to figure this out... so we're not running off to Vegas with our extra cash just yet.

 

Upfront and Ongoing Costs

Upfront cost was $29K. After a $6.5k rebate from SoCal Edison we paid $23K out of pocket. This year we filed for our energy tax credit, which went smooth as silk. A 30% credit on the cost of the panels and installation (after the rebate from SCE).

$29,000 (Upfront Cost) - $6,500 (SCE Rebate) - $7,000 (energy tax credit) = $16,100 end cost

And an important point is we own these panels. They are ours forever. If we move, we can take them with us. Also, since we own them, they are officially an asset and increase the value of the house a good deal (either when sold or if we ever rent it out).

The only future project cost is that the inverter (which converts the DC from the panels into AC for the house) will need to be replaced in 10 years or so. Currently those run a couple grand. Who knows how much they'll cost in 10 years - hopefully less given that there should be a high volume.

 

Lessons Learned

In the end, it looks like we may have over-provisioned (i.e. got too many panels). Our installer offered a number of options (14, 16, 18 panels, etc.) and great guidance, but in the end it was up to me and I erred on the side of over vs. under and picked 18.

The goal is not to generate more. Or even 100%. The goal is to generate 80-90%. To generate enough to keep you in Tier 1, or worse case, Tier 2. Look at my bills below. You can see that I actually was charged less during months when we didn't over generate (by a dollar... but still). And fewer panels means much faster ROI.

 

Other tidbits

• We got a recall notice from SunPower (the Solar Panel manufacture/provider) for an inverter. That freaked me out and so I contacted our installer and they were Johnny-on the-spot. They replied right back that it wasn't actually my inverter, that SunPower sent a blanket letter to everyone of their customers, no matter what inverter they had. And they gave me the tips to prove that to my own satisfaction.
• We continued to have a great relationship with our installer, Sun Pacific Solar Electric, Inc. These guys kept in touch, checking in every so often and responding very quickly to any questions I had. And their work has so far stood the test of time.
• Keeping the panels clean is a little bit of a chore. Given our semi-arid environment, with constant winds, the panels get dusty during the summer/fall. All it takes is a quick spray every couple weeks to clean them, but still a little bit of pain. (Lucky they are uber-easy for us to get at)'
• After a session of some heavy rain and serious winds, there's no leaks, drips or roof issues. Yeah! :)

 

Now some eye candy.

This is from the solar panel company for the past year. Kind of neat that you can watch how much you generate over the day/week/year. If you're a new solar panel owner, you hit this site about every 10 minutes or so! But once the blush wears off, we've been checking it out every couple weeks. And what's nice is that if "something happens" like a sudden drop off in generation, they will send an email to our installers to let them know something is up. Like a tree grows and begins to shadow the panels, etc.

 

Here's our electric bill from the year before our panels (2009-2010); And this past year (2010-2011);

 

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(See where the months we didn't over generate we were actually charged less? I had to laugh at that...)

So in the end would I do it again? In a minute. Even with all the credits, savings, rebates, etc, payback is still 7-10 years, so they are not a short term investment. If you plan to keep the property, they will pay off nicely in the long term. Think about how great they would be when on a fixed income/retirement!

We've been nothing but happy and the future is looking even brighter...

Read more about the Duncan Family's solar installation on Greg's blog:

• Solar Panel Installation - We're cooking with Solar!
• Solar Panel Installation Update - The Two-Dollar Electric Bill
• Solar Panel Update - Solar Power in the Southern California Winter - the $1 electric bill
• Our year in the sun... with solar power... (Original version of this post)

 

For more information on how you can go solar this summer, read more about Solarize Santa Barbara.