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Sunny Outlook To Rising Heating Costs

Bellbottoms and platform shoes are not the only trends from the ’70s making a comeback. Add solar energy to the list. Increasing environmental awareness, the soaring cost of heating oil and last summer’s record-high temperatures have many consumers looking toward the sun again for power.

Solar panels emerged in the late ’70s and early ’80s as a means to heat water, but today’s technological advances have made it possible to convert the sun’s rays into household electricity.

"It has mutated and come back," said Peter Kastl, http://www.njit.edu/Directory/Centers/CABSR/cabsr_team.htm

director of housing and building technology at NJIT’s Center for Architecture and Building Science. "It’s not at that stage where people can go down to Home Depot and buy some, but it’s coming."

Experts advise, though, that anyone considering the newest solar technology – known as photovoltaics -- use it as a supplemental energy source because it cannot yet compete economically with electric and gas utilities. As a primary energy source, solar power is used mostly in rural areas not served by power grids, where it is cheaper than having utility companies extend power lines.

Public Service Electric and Gas Co. (PSE&G), New Jersey’s largest utility, is testing a three-kilowatt system in the Essex County town of Maplewood.

"This is pretty indicative of the state-of-the-art 1/8system3/8 they could install today," said NJIT graduate Harry Roman, ’70, ’74, a PSE&G employee for the past 30 years.

Roman said that all New Jersey utilities are under state mandate to introduce forms of renewable energy, including solar, into their systems.

PSE&G is not the only metropolitan area energy company with a solar power initiative. The Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) chose 30 homes from a lottery pool of 5,000 for its Solar Pioneers pilot program.

Two 3-by-5-foot panels attached to each home generate 500 to 600 watts of electricity daily – enough to run a small- to medium-sized refrigerator, said LIPA spokesman Michael Lowndes.

"We anticipate that these installations should yield enough electricity to defray 1/8a customer’s3/8 annual electrical bill $100," he said.

Lowndes estimates each installation, which LIPA covered, would cost homeowners $4,000 to $5,000. A $100 annual savings and an initial cost of at least $4,000 means Long Island customers’ break-even point would be 20 years, after factoring in tax breaks and rebates.

Initial costs compared to energy savings. Such a lengthy break-even period begs the question of whether such installations are worth it.

"If it’s important to you in terms of clean energy, then yeah," said Lowndes. "We’re very optimistic – you’ve got to start somewhere."

One Morris County contractor said he is not ready to jump on the latest solar-powered bandwagon.

"Over the years, the market has shifted to where I would now say 95 percent of our work is pool heating and the remaining 5 percent is domestic hot water," said NJIT graduate Richard Bonte, ’70, whose Solar Living Inc. has been manufacturing and installing solar panels systems since 1975. "Twenty years ago, it was the opposite. People didn’t care what the 1/8installation3/8 cost was. They realized we were conserving energy. The county was in that mode."

Bonte, who installs systems in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut, said the turning point came, in 1985, when government tax credits dried up.

Today, he said, "People are looking for comfort. They’re not looking for conservation … and I’m still very pro-conservation. 1/8Potential customers say3.8, `We have hot water already; how does this help us?’"

Systems that heat water for domestic use pay off more quickly than photovoltaic systems. Bonte estimates installing a system to heat water costs $3,500 to $4,000. Replacing a gas-fired heater can produce an annual saving of $300, he said. Replacing an electric heating system can generate a $700-a-year savings.

"If it’s gas, you’re talking 12 to 13 years" to recover the initial cost, said Bonte. "If it’s electric, maybe six years."

Experts say that solar energy is similar to any other emerging technology. Improvements will increase efficiency and lower costs.

"This sort of thing has been bandied about in the past by other utilities," said Lowndes. "We’ve gotten to the point where it’s really become cost-efficient. If you have enough people pulling together, then everyone benefits."

Kastl also believes solar energy can be viable in the tri-state area.

"The Northeast has some of the highest conventional electricity costs in the country," said Kastl. "So, you would expect 1/8solar power3/8 to prove itself here earlier than it would elsewhere."

Kastl said that regions closer to the equator and with few cloudy days – such as the Southwest – have a built-in advantage.

Despite solar power’s sunny outlook, don’t expect to see work crews taking down power lines any time soon.

"This is simply one of the innovative alternative energies that we are beginning to experiment with on a wide-spread basis that may have a feasible future," said Kastl. "I don’t see that we’re going to do away with the power grid in general for a very long time."

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