Going green with solar flair
Connie Smades had a revelation one day and decided to do something about it.
“I just got tired of feeling guilty about washing clothes in hot water,” said the green-conscious Duncanville resident, who, along with her husband Bill, has completely remade her 33-year-old home to be more energy efficient.
Connie’s thoughts about her washing machine led to the Smades’ latest project: a solar water heater installed Jan. 14 by Mansfield-based Innerline Plumbing.
“We’ve gone green as of late,” Bill said. “Every year, we try to do a little bit more.”
The Smades each drive their own Prius, and there are five total in the family. Over time, they also added blown-in insulation to their attic, installed a vent in the roof and landscaped the yard to take advantage of natural shade.
The water heater costs $5,493.67, including installation, but the Smades will get more than half of that back in the form of an Oncor incentive rebate for $1,828.74 and a federal income tax credit that should come to $1,099.48.
“When it’s all over, they are going to end up paying for about 45 percent of the total cost,” said Craig Woolheater, owner of Innerline Plumbing, a family-owned business that Craig operates along with his brothers Kirk and Chris.
Innerline is the only certified “licensed green plumber” through GreenPlumbers USA in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Kirk, the master plumber, was fully accredited during a training session in Las Vegas.
Now, the Smades’ roof has solar panels, but not the large glass ones that might come to mind. These are polymer-based, flat collectors that are hard to notice unless you look for them.
“Can you imagine glass solar panels on these roofs with all these hail storms we tend to get around here?” Craig asked.
The solar heater comes with several parts. A sensor is mounted on the roof that monitors the temperature as the sun heats the solar panels. Lines from the sensor come down through the attic and connect to a drainback tank above the water heater inside the Smades’ home.
The water heater itself sits below the drainback tank, and both are attached to a circulation module that keeps water circulating and reduces the buildup of sediment.
“If the sensor senses a freeze condition, then it shuts the tank off, and all the water drains in to the drainback tank,” Kirk said.
For the install, Innerline’s Brad Tinnon helps Kirk clean the connection valves on the Smades’ new heater, while Rafael Herrera drills holes to install drain lines and works in the attic along with Tinnon to get the sensor up and running.
After Tinnon installs the drainback tank, Kirk takes over the bulk of the inside installation process with the water heater and the circulation module, while Chris – Innerline’s insurance expert, Crag says – handles a variety of tasks indoors and outdoors.
Connie came upon the idea of the solar water heater and did some Internet research before contacting Innerline just before New Year’s.
“We’re really pleased with how quickly this has come together,” she said.
The Smades estimate that they will save an additional $30 or so a month in electricity costs, which may sound modest, but the Smades’ average utility bill is only about $100-$120 a month during the hottest part of the year because of all of their environmental changes.
“That attic vent really sucks out the heat during the summer, and the new insulation really helped save us some money,” Bill said.
Once those changes were made, along with the addition of a high-efficiency air conditioner, some double-paned windows and a programmable thermostat, their bill dropped from around $300 a month to where it is today.
“If we are going to save on electricity over the long haul, we’ve got to do these things,” Bill said.
In addition, Bill did all the landscaping in the yard – planting two live oaks in the back yard, some crepe myrtles to shade their sun room and a red oak in the front yard.
“The trees have really been a boon to us,” he said. “One day, a guy came out and wanted to trim them, and I said, ‘oh, no, holy moley, there will be no tree-cutting here.’”
MORE INFO
For details on the Oncor incentive program, go here.
For information about green plumbers, go here.
For more information on Innerline Plumbing, go here.
Loyd Brumfield is the editor of the Best Southwest edition of neighborsgo.
Contact him at lbrumfield@neighborsgo.com or at 214-977-7686.
Source: neighborsgo.
Craig Woolheater responds:
Posted: February 2nd, 2010 at 8:53 PM →
I found out some interesting news today.
I found out that the 30% federal tax credit applies to the entire project price regardless of any incentives.
So the revised math would be:
$5493.67 total project price
$1828.74 Oncor incentive
$1648.10 30% federal tax credit
$2016.83 total cost of project to homeowner
36.7% Percentage of total cost to homeowner
30% Percentage of total cost from federal tax credit
33.3% Percentage of total cost from Oncor incentive