Architect Hopes to Live off the Grid

When solar architect John Rountree's farmhouse on South Compo Road turned 100 years old this year, he gave it a present: he made it green.

He installed state-of-the-art solar panels that provide 80 percent of the family's electricity needs, solar panels that heat their water, bamboo flooring and a heat-recovery system that converts waste energy to useable heat.

An electric car that will recharge through the solar system is on order. It's color? Probably green.

For years, Rountree harbored a dream. Instead of paying monthly electric bills to Connecticut Light & Power, he hoped to receive checks back from the utility for the excess electricity his home-based solar system would add to the grid.

To make his dream come true, last October Rountree brought  solar electricity and water-heating systems to the simple white house where he lives with his family and works in his office. He completed extensive renovations to make the house energy efficient and sustainable by installing high-density foam insulation, a hybrid gas/electric heating and cooling system and replaced the floors with bamboo flooring. (bamboo is a grass and not a wood. It's harder than oak and grows quickly, unlike an oak tree which takes decades to mature.)

In addition to that, he installed a system he invented to capture heat from the space between the 20 photovoltaic panels on his roof and the roof itself. The heat is blown by a fan into the house to warm it in the winter and cool the panels to improve their efficiency in the summer.

Rountree has spent the last 10 months since the installation fine-tuning the systems, analyzing the data that is constantly fed to his computer and studying his monthly CL&P bills with rapt interest.

With robust satisfaction during an interview with Patch on Monday, Rountree pronounced: "It works!"

The weather was overcast and drizzly but the solar panels generated 388 watts of electricity at midday, according to the reading on the basement meter. That number can get as high as 3,000 on a hot summer day.

Captured heat from the panels did keep the downstairs of the house toasty over the past winter and this summer the solar system provided the family's hot water needs 100 percent of the time.

And in April and May, he earned credits with CL&P because the solar system produced more electricity than the family used those months.

Based on performance data to date, Rountree is confident the renewable energy technology will do better than he projected when he designed the system to meet 80 percent of the family's energy needs.

It's designed to create 6,400 kilowatts of electricity over the course of a year and it already has produced 5,297 with two months to go.

This year, he acknowledges it will fall short of fulfilling his dream of generating more electricity with passive solar than the family consumes.

So to reach his ultimate goal, Rountree plans to rebuild a garage on the property and solarize it with PV panels.

With that step completed, he anticipates CL&P will turn debtor, not creditor, next year.

A Career in Energy

Early in his career, Rountree worked at leading architectural firms in New York City. He was drawn to conceptualizing solar installations for residential and commercial projects, but he was ahead of his time: the firms weren't interested.

So, Rountree moved to Westport 14 years ago, worked for the Westport architectural firm Valus & Carpenter Associates and then set up his own office specializing in "solar architecture." He's also formed a partnership, Westport Solar Consultants, for designing solar systems.

Rountree's designed a dozen residential solar systems as well as the Westport Fire Department's solar roof. It was the first municipally-owned building to be solar-outfitted, he said. A $100,000 grant from the state's Clean Energy Fund covered  half the funding for the project, which provides 15 per cent of the building's electricity needs.

Rountree says it's economically attractive to go solar.

Federal rebates allow homeowners to deduct 30 per cent of the cost of solar systems from the bottom line on their tax returns, he said.

In addition, a state program awards residential conversions.

"When the state rebate was $5 per watt – at the time the highest rebate for solar in the country, even more than California – you couldn't afford not to do it," he said.

Rountree's solar system cost $66,000 ($55,000 for the electrical component and $11,000 for the hot water component) and the heat recovery system cost $6,000, for a total of $72,000 before rebates and tax credits. Over time, it will pay for itself.

Rountree also participated in the state's solar lease program, a "great deal," he said, that requires no money down. Information is available at www.ctsolarlease.com.

State subsidies whither

Connecticut became a victim of its own success in the 1990s when the subsidies were wildly popular, Rountree said, and the rebates had to be reduced. The funds are made up from contributions electricity consumers make with their monthly bills.

The energy bill vetoed by Governor Rell this past year would have provided incentives for large-scale commercial solarizations that could individually reap as much as a megawatt of power, Rountree said.

The $4/watt rebate previously available for commercial developers has been eliminated, he added.

"The veto was a big blow to development of commercial solar alternatives ."

Rountree is confident that when Connecticut has a new governor, the legislature will enact legislation to restore significant incentives for renewable energy.

Besides being good for the environment, renewable energy can bring jobs to Connecticut, he said.

Rountree recently won a $10,000 grant from the state Office of Policy and Management to refine his design for the system that captures and recycles "waste heat" from solar panels and develop a business plan to implement it. The idea is to attract investors in clean technology and to create jobs.

"It has to look good, too," said the architect.

Rountree is opening his house to a fundraising tour this Saturday, August 28, from noon to 4 p.m., sponsored by PACE (People's Action for Clean Energy), a statewide public interest organization devoted to sustainable energy. Advance tickets are available online for $15 at www.pace-cleanenergy.org or $20 the day of the tour at 130 Compo Road South.