The Compaan Home

Solar power can work anywhere the sun shines. Ohio Homeowners Al Compaan of Holland and David Carpenter of Delaware are among growing numbers of Ohioans who are 'paying forward' their energy bills by going solar.

The Carpenter Home

"This is not a future technology, this is a current technology", says schoolteacher David Carpenter, "The time to pay off the panels is equal to or slightly less than the warranty on the panels. It costs less than a new car to put them up. So, a lot of people can afford this, you don't have to be rich. I budgeted the whole thing as if I was buying a car."

The up-front cost is the solar panels. Once they are installed, in many parts of Ohio, you can get net metering from many utility companies and feed your electricity right into the grid. There is little equipment involved. The goal, says Al Compaan, is to be at net zero.

"A net zero electricity house would be one that has no net usage of electricity averaged over a year. That means that you could have a demand for electricity during the nighttime, you may be using electricity from the grid, which in our case is First Energy. But during the daytime hours you would be running off the electricity generated from the solar panels and you would be generating enough excess to cover the usage that you have at night. Of course, from summer to winter, you have varying amounts, so averaged over a year the goal was to have a house that would generate as much electricity as it used."

And it IS possible. David Carpenter says his home is averaging 103% of his electric and Al Compaan says his isn't quite 100% but he does run his truck by plugging it into his house.

"It comes very close to being a net zero house. Technically the house is delivering extra electricity and the extra electricity is being used for an electric truck that I use for commuting. Now you put the truck together with the house and that's very close to a net zero system. So it's a solar home and it's a solar powered electric truck."

No electric bills. It sounds like a dream come true. And these two are livin' the dream!

Both homeowners took advantage of special financial programs through Ohio's Department of Development Office of Energy Efficiency.