Committing to solar electricity for our #leed house in Houston & August budget
I had a budget meeting with our builder this morning, at which we reviewed the figures for the house. We are beyond the 75% mark of the work, budget and close to the 100% for accurate cost-forecasting. In other words, there are very few major trades not yet in sub-contracts. Looking at these numbers it shows that we are in very good shape - and likely to get very close to our budget numbers. There are a few minor overages still to be worked out, but we also have some savings to offset these.
So given this positive financial picture, we have been looking at the possibility of adding the solar panels we had considered, and rejected a year ago. If you recall, Kathleen, our architect, had planned a space on the south facing roof for panels, and we had already placed a circuit under the roof right there, to allow panels to be added easily later. We were figuring that we'd wait a few years until the price came down alot more. Well, things have been moving, and we have a proposal from a solar provider that would put the final cost (after tax refund) at around $11-12k for a 2.3 KW DC/1.8 KW AC array that fits our space. While it will take several years to recoup the cost, it should pay for itself over about 15 years. It is also going to add value to the house. There is a significant offset in carbon - the proposal estimated that "Your Solar Electric System Will Save an Estimated 103,363 Pounds Of CO2 Emissions over 30 years."
Another advantage of the solar panels is that they will add significant LEED points. As it turns out from our last LEED meeting we have a very good shot at getting LEED Gold even without the solar, but of course it will help. Our builders have done a very good job at diverting waste from the landfill - over 88% of the waste from our site has gone to recycling, which is worth, I think 3 points. We also tweaked the landscaping to make it more environmentally friendly. More on the LEED outcome when we get the final tally, but it is looking good.
So, we are going to do solar - stay tuned for pics and progress!
