Ehleringer's PV System Profile
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| Location: | Salt Lake City, United States |
| Commissioning: | 12/17/2011 |
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| PV system power: | 4.200 kWp |
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| Modules: | Conergy Conergy PM 235P |
| Communication: |  Sunny WebBox mit Bluetooth |
| Inverter: |  Sunny Boy 4000US |
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Description:
We achieved our family goal to become a net carbon sink and become more sustainable.
Goal 1: Make recycling part of your life - reduce-reuse-recyle.
Goal 2: Grow food locally. We planted fruit trees and installed vegetable gardens. Since 1983, we have raised vegetables and fruit throughout the summer and fall seasons.
Gopal 3: Reduce demand for summer cooling. Reduce incident solar energy on our house by reducing sunlight on south- and west-facing exposures. We installed retractable awnings along the entire west side of our house and use shrubs on the south side. As a result, incident solar heating is greatly reduced.
Goal 4: Reduce attic temperature in summer, thereby reducing the heat load inside our house. Here roof modifications reduced attic summertime temperatures and increased attic wintertime temperatures. This involves several attic adjustments: summer venting, winter air flow dampening, and more insulation.
Goal 5: Become carbon neutral as a family. We accomplished this in 2004 in 3 steps by: (a) purchasing all of our electrical power using wind-generated electricity; (b) making sufficient wind power donations to offset carbon emissions associated with our home heating and with airline and vehicle travel; and (c) making donations for tree planting to offset carbon emissions we did not include in our vehicle, home heating, and airline-related emissions calculations.
Goal 6: Become a carbon sink in our energy-related activities. Additional efforts were required to go from neutral to become a sink. We now generate at least 50% of our electricity using the 14 235W PV panels shown above. By our calculations, if we sum up our emission-related and sink-relate activities, we have become a net carbon sink on the landscape.
Goal 7: Become a stronger net carbon sink. Add more PV panels - soon.
Goal 8: Buy an electric car - soon.
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