Sun powers up part of Palm City Elementary

Sun powers up part of Palm City Elementary

As we prepare to install our own solar system we see news about new systems popping up everywhere. Discussions with friends and business acquaintances always seem to drift to this topic. Solar is not cheap but with state rebates and the panels working every day it can pay for itself in a reasonable amount of time. Here in Florida, the state rebates $4 a watt for residential PV systems. That means that if you put a 4 KW system up you will get $16,000 back from the state.

In spite of thinking that we have a lot of roof space for solar we find that it is a challenge to fit enough collectors on our roof to generate our desired 4 KW of power. Our design guys down at Vergona Bowersox in Boca Raton are working hard to fit the maximum number of panels on the roof.

We already have our solar water heating system in place and it has been happily making hot water for us since the end of last year. Yes, the water is extremely hot. It has an electric backup for short cloudy winter days but we keep it turned off most of the time. The water is so hot that one has to be very careful when opening the hot water tap. We have had solar hot water systems for about fifteen years now and have been extremely happy with their silent and efficient operation.

Here's a link to Palm City Elementary's website. Palm City Elementary