Owner takes steps to energy efficiency

When a company finished installing 12 solar panels on the roof of Shawn Tuttle's East Broad Street Victorian last month, the 100-plus-year-old house was transformed into a beacon of 21st-century energy efficiency.

Today, their PG&E meter is running backwards.

"Solar just makes sense to me," said Tuttle, who shares the house with John Munro. "I've got this south-facing roof that's just absorbing sun."

When she purchased the house in 2004, Tuttle noticed that the front, south-facing room overheated in the summer and dropped to chilly temperatures in the winter. In order to heat it to a comfortable degree, she'd blast the furnace, which then overheated the rest of the house. Her PG&E bills shot up to $400 a month in the winter.

Tuttle, who owns a business called Project Simplify (http://projectsimplify.com) in which she helps small businesses become more efficient, immediately began looking for ways to modify her antique home's wasteful ways.

She replaced the single-pane windows in the south-facing rooms with double-paned, UV-protected, thermal windows. The new panes prevent heat from overpowering the room in the summer and keep the cold air out in the winter.

Also on the to-do list was switching the water heating system from the 40-gallon dinosaur that took over half of her basement with a small, 4-gallon-a minute unit that will ultimately pay for itself in saved gas costs. The unit, made by Takagi, doesn't store water but rather generates it on demand.

Other renovations to the house included adding a vented ridge on the roof and air ducts in the eaves that act as a natural cooling system, forcing hot air out of the attic.

Of all of the changes Tuttle made in her quest for a greener home, the solar panels were the costliest and required the most research. She said that she met with representatives from five different solar energy companies before deciding on NextEnergy Corp., based in Concord.

According to NextEnergy President Randy Kaufmann, the total cost of Tuttle's 12-panel unit was $19,000. After a $5,600 rebate from the California Energy Commission and a $2,000 federal tax credit, total cost of the system was $11,400. NextEnergy even sent a representative along to the Nevada City Planning Commission when Tuttle sought approval for her renovation.

NextEnergy installed a new type of solar panel which Kauffman described as more aesthetically pleasing, more powerful and smaller than older models. The panels, produced by SunPower using technology developed at Stanford University, don't have the blue gridlines that run across the surface of traditional units. The 12 panels shimmer like dark onyx on Tuttle's sloped roof.

Each panel measures 32 inches wide, 62 inches high and generates 200 watts DC. Once the watts are converted to AC, total output equals 2,000 watts.

Going before the planning commission was "more stressful in anticipation than actuality," Tuttle said, adding that members even apologized for making her come to them with her plans and said that they would work to automate the process in the future.

In the end, the commission decided that the importance of using alternative energy outweighed the aesthetic aspects of modernizing a Victorian, Tuttle said, although her home is not in Nevada City's historic district.

Feedback from her neighbors has been unanimously positive. One neighbor told a reporter Wednesday that he thought the solar renovation was "a great idea." According to Tuttle, others on her block are considering converting to solar power within the next few years and were encouraged by her result.

"I'm happy for this to be a model," Tuttle said. "I think it's the most visible roof on Broad Street. To me it adds to the character of the town in a positive way."

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To contact staff writer Jill Bauerle, e-mail jillb@theunion.com or call 477-4219.