Rare Powerhouse Under the Sun

"I just think its so important for them to know that there are options and that we need to invest in these options," said Hanis, 44, senior vice president of marketing and business development for America's Community Bankers, a trade group in the District.

Dana, a sixth-grader at Gunston Middle School who recently made a wind turbine for science class, called her new solar system "really cool."

She said, "We're not producing pollution like burning coal and fossil fuels and we're just using what we have."

The family's road to solar power began about four years ago, when its 1935 Colonial was undergoing construction to accommodate a bigger kitchen, dining room and family room. With so much more space, all facing the sunny south, was there something that could be done to make it more energy efficient?

The question was posed to the architect, "but he knew nothing about designing for solar," Hanis said, and local expertise seemed scant. "We just didn't have enough knowledge. So we put it aside."

But it still bothered her. And so, in between working and driving the kids to soccer and lacrosse matches, Hanis began researching in earnest. Last fall, the family went to the U.S. Energy Department's Solar Decathlon at the Mall, a competition in which student engineers, designers and architects created a small house wholly powered by the sun. She was particularly struck, Hanis said, by a home with moving walls that changed its configuration according to the inhabitants' needs. "I kind of felt like I was alone out there," she said, but seeing the exhibit "reinforced what I was doing."

About the same time, Hanis also went on a local tour of solar homes sponsored by the American Solar Energy Society. She took notes on the different equipment and jotted down names of companies that installed them.

She went on http://www.findsolar.com/ , which lists local solar contractors and estimates cost of installations and savings. She solicited bids and got four. They signed a contract in March.

Last week, Hanis and Warnecke stood on the roof, observing the solar crew from Standard Solar Inc. of Gaithersburg and LBA Renewable Energy Systems Inc. of Beallsville, Md., carefully load the blue panels on the shingled roof. (The two companies are merging under the Standard Solar name.)

Occasionally, Hanis helped hoist some materials farther up the 40-degree rooftop while her husband documented the family's step toward energy independence with a digital camera.

"We figure with teenagers, our hot water consumption is going to go up by 50 percent," joked Warnecke, 51, a systems consultant for McLean-based Mitre Corp.

The photovoltaic and hot water systems will set the couple back $25,000, even after the $2,000 federal credit for each of the installations.

The family spends about $1,500 a year for electricity and $600 for hot water. Those bills should dwindle to around $1,000 and $150 respectively, according to representatives of the solar crew.

Even so, it will take a very long time for the couple to recoup their investment. The Hanis-Warneckes calculated that they would make back their cost for the hot water system ($5,000) in six years and the photovoltaic system ($20,000) in 22 years, although they now expect the break-even point to come sooner with the way the bills are going up lately.

But then again, saving money was never the driving factor, Warnecke said.

"This was something we wanted to do. It's not an economic decision," Warnecke said. "There's a payback and benefit to this that we do not realize economically."

Still, the family is looking forward to watching the hand on the electric meter spin backwards.

In the meantime, Hanis said, they are considering getting rid of that second refrigerator.