Family Becomes Even More ‘Green-Friendly’

A Norwood couple is hoping to reduce their electricity bill and at the same time to lessen their carbon footprint. Ron and Nancy Bryant have recently added a new project to their already green-friendly home.

To harness the clean and unlimited energy from the sun, the Bryants have recently installed 24 photovoltaic (PV) solar panels onto the roof of their barn. With these panels, they will be able to generate the electricity for their household from sunlight.

Attached to the home are two boxes — an inverter and a meter. Because the energy generated by the solar panels is not in a form used by electrical appliances and utilities in the home, it must be converted into a useable form. The inverter takes the DC energy produced from the solar panels and converts it to AC. The second box acts as a meter, telling how much energy the solar panels are producing.

The home is connected to a utility grid which will enable the Bryants to buy and sell electricity. They will not use batteries as a back-up source for when there is limited sunlight, as Ron does not want to be encumbered with keeping up batteries.

They will purchase electricity at the cost of about 11 cents per kilowatt hour and sell the energy their PV panels produce back to Duke Energy and Advanced Energy for about 21 cents per kilowatt hour. Advanced Energy is a non-profit state utilities commission which subsidizes green energy sources to encourage alternative energies throughout the state.

Read the entire article from the Stanly News and Press here.