Friday, October 22, 2004 Newsday, Inc.
Tom Incantalupo, Staff Writer
A HEATED ISSUE —
Rising oil and gas prices are leading more homeowners to ponder whether
solar and geothermal systems could save them money with some tips if you're
hot for solar
Yelleshpur Dathatri is one of those rare men who smiles broadly when he talks about his hot water heater.
The reason is obvious - but only if one stands in his backyard in East Farmingdale and looks up at the solar collectors on his roof.
Dathatri, an engineering professor at Farmingdale State University of New York, says the system he had installed last year produces all the hot water he and his wife need from late spring to early fall. The rest of the time, his conventional gas water heater picks up the slack. And, he says, standing next to the equipment in his basement, “there is no maintenance - nothing.”
With home heating oil hitting $2 a gallon, natural gas prices rising and Long Islanders still paying some of the highest electric rates in the nation, the cost-benefit equations are shifting somewhat in favor of alternatives such as solar energy or the more expensive and exotic geothermal heat and hot water.
For homeowners like Dathatri, solar is a hands-down winner. Although he hasn’t calculated his savings yet, Dathatri runs a program at the university that trains and certifies solar equipment installers, and he got the system at a deep discount through contacts in the industry.
For other homeowners, the decision on whether to invest in alternative energies is more complex and requires weighing several factors.
“ There is no maintenance — nothing,”
Yelleshpur Dathatri says about his home’s solar system, which produces
all the hot water he needs from spring to fall. (Newsday Photo /
Jim Peppler)
When solar makes cents
In general, experts says that if you plan to stay in your home for at least a decade and/or you plan to install new heating or air-conditioning equipment in the house anyway, it may be worthwhile to consider a solar system for hot water or a geothermal system for heat and hot water.
But estimates vary widely on how long it will be before they pay for themselves and begin yielding net savings.
Take solar. Sunlight is free; it should be a no-brainer that using the sun instead of oil or natural gas to make hot water for your house will save money.
But to do that, the heat from sunlight has to be collected in special panels - flat boxes with a glass top and copper tubing inside. Then, the heat has to be transported, usually in a fluid treated with antifreeze, from outside to inside, where the heat can be transferred to the home's hot water supply system and/or the home's heating system. Moving the heat requires a pump that runs on electricity.
Cost of the equipment? Dathatri says his system, designed for a family of two, would cost most consumers about $4,000. Gary Minnick, co-owner of Go Solar Inc. of Riverhead, who sold Dathatri his equipment, says a system that fulfills 75 percent of the annual needs of a five-member household would cost about $6,500.
Installing a system that could handle 100 percent of the needs in winter, he says, isn't cost-effective. As with most alternative heating technologies, a supplemental hot water production source is needed. It can be electric in a new installation, or it can be the existing oil- or gas-fired boiler or furnace, as Dathatri uses in his 8-year-old Colonial home.
The savings? A five-member household that uses 500 gallons of oil a year just for hot water - at $2 a gallon (the current average on Long Island is $2.07, according to the state) - would save about $750 a year using a solar system, Minnick claims.
But Kevin Rooney, chief executive officer of the Oil Heat Institute of Long Island, a trade group, says production of hot water accounts for only about a fourth, at most, of a home's total annual heating oil consumption - which on Long Island averages about 920 gallons. For 230 gallons, at $2 a gallon, that's $460 a year for hot water. And since the solar system will supply only about 75 percent of the needs, the saving would be just $345 a year.
Even by Minnick’s calculations the solar hot water system in question takes about eight years to pay for itself. While these systems are widely used for swimming pools, they're less commonly used on Long Island for heating household water.
Not surprisingly, they’re more common in places with more sunshine, like California, Florida and Arizona.The sunnier the climate and the higher the price of oil or gas, the shorter the break-even time.
Paul Torcellini, a senior engineer at the federal government's National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo., says that such alternative equipment gives the household a degree of self-sufficiency and protection against price surges. “You’re buying it at today’s dollars, and you’re hedging what future fuel costs will be,” he said.
But many who did that during the first oil shock of the 1970s, he concedes, lost their bets as energy costs fell in inflation-adjusted terms through the ’80s and most of the ’90s.
The calculations are no simpler if the alternative heating method being considered is a “heat pump” or more expensive “geothermal heat pump.”
The heat pump, put simply, is like a central air conditioner that can run the usual way - removing heat from the air in the house and dumping the heat outside - or run “backwards,” drawing heat from the air outside (even 40-degree air has heat in it) and dumping it inside to help warm the house.
Diminishing returns
But the heat pump runs on electricity. And below about 40 degrees, these so-called “air sourced” heat pumps lose efficiency, Torcellini said. So in an area like Long Island, where lower winter temperatures are common, these heat pumps have to be supplemented either by expensive electric heat or a conventional oil or gas heat system. “You have to buy two systems,” Torcellini said.
A house without the ductwork of a central air-conditioning or forced-air heating system isn’t a good candidate for this system, in any case. “If you weren’t going to put in central air, it makes no sense to put in a heat pump,” said Glenn Hourahan, a technical expert for the Air Conditioning Contractors of America, a trade group based in Virginia.
More practical for New York homeowners, experts say, is the “geothermal” heat pump, which, as its name implies, extracts heat in winter from the ground, which in winter is warmer than the ambient air, and transports that heat into the house. In summer, the system does the opposite, removing heat from the house and dumping it into the relatively cool ground.
Heat is removed from the ground or returned to it either by extracting and then returning groundwater - the cheapest way - or via more costly “closed loop” systems in which water is pumped through pipes into the ground, the groundwater or a surface body of water like a pond to either collect heat or dump it and then pumped back to the house.
Geothermal installer Carl Orio, chairman of New Hampshire-based Water Energy Distributors Inc., which routinely installs systems on Long Island, claims equipment prices now are half what they were in the 1970s. For example, he says, a 3.5-ton capacity system that will heat and cool a 2,000- square-foot newer, well-insulated home would cost about $12,000, including $4,900 for the pump, $2,500 for piping and $4,500 for ducts.
Comparative shopping
Without the ductwork and underground piping, Orio says, the cost of the geothermal system is about equal to a conventional heating system and separate central air-conditioning system. Even with them, he claims, “You end up saving the price differential over about three years.”
But Greg Lampman, an associate project manager and heat pump expert at the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority in Albany, says geothermal equipment is better at cooling than heating and is worth considering only for those who want central air conditioning. “You're not going to get a payoff just on the heat side,” he said.
Even though the geothermal system’s pumps run on electricity, Orio claims that in summer, the geothermal system will cut a homeowner’s electric bill by 35 percent - and almost double that if the homeowner opts for the most efficient geothermal equipment available.
So far, few homeowners appear convinced. The Geothermal Heat Pump Consortium, a Columbia, Md.-based trade group, says there are fewer than a million commercial and residential units in operation nationwide. But Orio, who says his business has been increasing by 30 percent to 40 percent a year in recent years, says high fuel prices are spurring interest. “It's going to be a big jump again this year,” he said.
In the case of solar heat, homeowners are largely on their own in paying for the equipment; the Long Island Power Authority offers incentives only for something else Dathatri has in his home - solar systems that produce electricity, not heat.
For geothermal, though, LIPA offers rebates ranging from $150 to $800 per ton of capacity - a typical system for a 2,000- square-foot home is seven tons, LIPA says, with eligibility and amount depending upon the unit's efficiency and whether it's a new or replacement unit. (There are no incentives for air-sourced heat pumps.)
Geothermal costs
LIPA claims a geothermal cooling and heating system for a 2,000-square-foot house can be installed for $15,400, after a rebate. LIPA says the system will save a homeowner who heats with $1.75-a-gallon oil and uses LIPA electricity for the central air conditioning $550 a year.
While geothermal units use more electricity in winter than the oil or gas furnaces they replace, such increased usage is not a concern - LIPA has plenty of electricity to go around in winter. But in summer, when LIPA struggles to keep up with demand, the geothermal units use less electricity than the central air conditioners they replace.
The U.S. Department of Energy also touts the potential of geothermal heat pumps. While acknowledging that residential geothermal systems are usually more expensive initially to install than other heating and cooling systems, the agency says on its Web site that “their greater efficiency means the investment can be recouped in two to 10 years. After that, energy and maintenance costs are much less than conventional heating and air-conditioning systems.”
Solar panels lining the roof of Yelleshpur Dathatri’s
home use glass tops and copper tubing to collect sunlight to heat the
house. (Newsday Photo / Jim Peppler)
Some tips if you're hot for solar
Thinking solar or geothermal?
Here are some tips from experts:
To get your energy usage down, add insulation in the attic and around pipes wherever needed and generally tighten the house with caulking and weather stripping, even perhaps new windows.
If your existing furnace or boiler is to remain the prime heating source, have it tested for operating efficiency - the percentage of heat in the fuel it burns that becomes heat in the home, as opposed to going up the chimney. About 85 percent is usually about as good as a unit gets - though there are high-end units with efficiencies of 90 percent. If the unit is not efficient, repair or replace it.
Be aware that homes with heavy shade might not be suitable for solar collectors without serious tree-trimming. Take advantage of natural solar warmth; for example, south-facing windows or a glass-enclosed porch or sunroom can help collect solar heat, says the New York Solar Industries Association, a trade group.
A homeowner with plumbing skills might be able to save money - and therefore shorten the payback time - by installing a solar system himself.
Beware of geothermal contractors lowballing equipment estimates and offering expensive electric heat as a supplement. A geothermal system, installers say, shouldn't need a backup system.
Cash rebates are available from the Long Island Power Authority to help defray the cost of geothermal equipment, but there is no governmental or utility assistance on Long Island for solar heating and cooling equipment. For information about the LIPA rebates, visit the Web site www.lipow er.org and click on “clean energy” at the top of the home page, and then select “geothermal” from the dropdown menu.
Check out these other Web sites for basic information about equipment and energy-saving tips:
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