Going Solar Goes Mainstream

Tax Credits, Technology Bring Down Financial, Aesthetic Barriers

Nancy Elam and Dave Levinson didn't intend to become human guinea pigs. They just needed a new roof.

But their Friendship Heights home now represents the hottest trend in solar technology, the integration of power-producing hardware into the roof so that a solar home looks just like every other house on the block.

The idea of using the sun to heat water and create electricity is becoming a reality even in perennially partly cloudy Washington. People around the region are tapping tax credits, grants and home equity to add solar thermal and photovoltaic systems to their rooftops.

Photovoltaic systems can provide a third to two-thirds of the energy needed to power the house. Solar thermal systems can provide an average home with hot water for 10 to 11 months of the year without having to use electricity or gas. There's also that bit about saving the planet.

The investment to install these systems is substantial, payback periods are long, and the economic advantage boils down to a hedge by homeowners against rising energy prices. But advanced designs, government funding and visual improvements are ushering in a new era of solar.

The aesthetics of solar can squelch conversions as some neighborhood design committees object to how arrays look. This was a nonissue at the Elam-Levinson house, which is in the final throes of a renovation project that incorporates photovoltaic-generated electricity and a solar thermal system -- all cleverly disguised.

The photovoltaic cells are incorporated into what look like slate shingles. The solar thermal system that heats domestic hot water runs underneath them. "The house looks nice, and we're doing something positive," said Elam, a retired federal lawyer.

The couple's path toward reducing their carbon footprint actually began with a leaky roof.

"It was 30 to 40 thousand dollars for a new slate roof," said Levinson, also a lawyer. The couple has owned the house since 1991 and had already begun a renovation project with Bob Reinhardt of Reinhardt Architects in Garrett Park.

"Ten years ago we did a deck, and in 2006 they came to me about a slate roof that leaked, an old mechanical system and possibly putting a home office on the third floor. There was no discussion on green or sustainable design," Reinhardt said.

As the design team kicked around ideas, the couple applied for and received a Renewable Energy Demonstration Project grant from the District's Department of the Environment.

The renovation is still too recent for any long-term readings on how much power is being generated or saved, but the owners report that their April and May power bills were half of normal and June's was a third less.