solar power

Green Open House Tour: Green Retro-fit: Built in 1818 and renovated with a grant from the state, one home on the Green Open House Tour now features modern green building systems.

The NESEA (Northeast Sustainable Energy Association) is hosting an open house on Saturday, October 4, from 10 am to 4 pm. The organization has coordinated with home owners and facility managers to provide access to numerous green buildings. Visit the site to see if there is an open house in your area and drop in to ask questions and see the installations that make new and remodeled homes more energy efficient. Just click on the map search, enter your zip code, and click GO. You can also search for projects that involve a specific type of green feature, like a geothermal heat pump, grey-water collection, or LEED rating in the drop down menu at left. I’m going to visit a home built in 1818 in Andover, MA that exhibits grid-tied Photovoltaics, a geothermal heat pump, a tankless water heater, and an alternative fuel vehicle for daily use.

Post submitted by ThinkDwell.

Still dreaming of a solar powered house but think you can't afford it? Even with State and Federal assistance, installing a full solar system on your house can run you upwards of $10,000, depending on your location.

A new collection of companies are taking a lesson from the auto industry and are renting solar panels to consumers. Based out of San Francisco, Sun Run is one of the key companies in this new solar trend.

But just how does it work? Sun Run's solution is the first all-inclusive residential solar electricity package, offered for less than your current electric bill. You will lock in a below-market rate for the electricity the panels generate on your roof, and you can relax knowing that Sun Run will optimize, monitor, and maintain the system they install at no extra cost.

Such a sustainable and affordable option was one we couldn't resist investigating. Sun Run President Nat Kreamer was nice enough to take some time to chat with Building Green TV about his unique company and everything they offer for customers. Keep reading for details about Sun Run's beginnings, actual customer savings, expansion plans, and solar misconceptions. This is one interview you won't want to miss!

Preparing to install your first set of solar panels? Wondering if you are harnessing all the sun's energy that you possibly can? A new device from California-based Solmetric stands to help both residential and commercial solar power users get the most from their investment.

Also useful when designing the layout of new construction or remodeling projects, the Solmetric SunEye is a "hand held electronic device that allows users to instantly assess total potential solar energy given the shading of a particular site. Identifying the shading pattern early in the process reduces the expense of system and home design and improves the efficiency of the final system or house," according to the Solmetric website.

Release just last year, the SunEye was recently chosen as one of BuildingGreen's Top 10 Products for 2007. Chosen from over 200 products being reviewed by the website, the SunEye joins fellow BGTV favorite LED light from LLF Inc.

An easy-to-use interface and USB connection for data transfer to your computer makes the SunEye simple for all users. What else does this swank little device do? Here are a few more of its efficient features:

+ Integrated electronics plot solar exposure at that location.

+ Users can edit images, simulating the removal of obstructions such as trees or structures.

+ Shading percentages in monthly, seasonal, annual, and multi-skyline averages can be determined in the field or uploaded to a personal computer via USB data cable for further analysis, reporting, and printing.

+ The Solmetric SunEye automatically generates reports for sales quotes and solar rebate applications.

We posted about the Solar Decathlon last week, and now we're back with the winners (which were just announced at 2pm EST)!

So, with no further adieu -- first place goes to: Germany's own Technische Universität Darmstadt!

The team scored big by developing working relationships with other German companies, such as Bosch, and integrating those technologies into their solar experiment. The house will now return to Germany where it will serve as a solar power plant as part of the university's "Solare Lichtwiese" (or, Solar Campus project).

Read all about the house here.

Meanwhile, second place went to the University of Maryland, and third to Santa Clara University.

Read up on all the amazing entries at the 2007 Solar Decathlon web site and view photos of all the homes here.

Image via Jim Tetro, Solar Decathlon

When we talk about green building and green living, we often talk about materials that we can buy or practices that we can adopt in our home -- and that's because we truly believe that every little bit helps and that every person who decides to green their home in a responsible way makes a difference.

We don't talk about legislation very much; however, just this morning we received an email from iPower (no it's not a Mac product; it's a renewable energy corporation ) about the Vote Solar Initiative.

Long story short, Vote Solar's goal is to bring solar energy into the mainstream through policy. They're currently, and rightfully, all riled up because there is a federal solar bill in the works. The goal of the bill is, ostensibly, to make solar power more affordable to more people by extending federal tax credits, and lifting the limits on current solar tax credits. And Vote Solar wants to make sure that Congress gets it right.

You can learn all about the Vote Solar Initiative here and in this piece written by Adam Browning, cofounder and executive director of Vote Solar, for Grist.

Cross-posted from our site:

This week we talk about solar powered domestic hot water systems and the release of the third part of our interview with Dr. Kesik, a leading Canadian building science researcher. Please click below to view:

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Imagine waking up one morning, deciding that you want to start using solar power, and then printing some photovoltaic cells from your home-based inkjet printer. Or just having some sprayed onto a piece of plastic?

It sounds like something right out of the Jetsons, but that's what they're talking about today over at the Sustainable Design Update.

Apparently, Somenath Mitra, PhD of the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), has developed a cheap solar material that is both sprayable and printable.

Sustainable Design Update quotes him as saying, “The process is simple. Someday homeowners will even be able to print sheets of these solar cells with inexpensive home-based inkjet printers. Consumers can then slap the finished product on a wall, roof or billboard to create their own power stations.”

We're amazed.

Read the whole story at Science Daily.

Image via sxc.hu, Cris Watk