Project of the Month - July 2012

The Youngblut Residence, Seattle

Eric Youngblut, who works in the software industry, says solar power has “great geek appeal.” He has been interested in solar for some time and has a home with a huge, south-facing roof. The neighborhood group buying opportunity provided the impetus to buy the system although in hindsight, he says it would have been worth it even without the discount. The decision was not a purely economical one – the family does its best to live a green lifestyle including Eric biking to work in downtown Seattle most days.

According to Eric, “my 3.99kW system is expected to produce 4178kWh/year, which would save $400/year in utilities at the current Seattle City Light rate.  The WA state incentive is worth $2,255/year. The system installation was completed in March and in the two very cloudy months since we have produced about three quarters of the power we need for our home - pretty amazing since we’ve not had sun for most of that time. The system is rated at 4kW but in full sun it can produce 4600 watts – which we realized by watching the display on the inverter.”

Eric and Carla Youngblut are shown here with their daughters in front of the home they equipped with a PV system as part of NW Seed/Solarize Seattle: Northeast project.

The installation process was incredibly smooth – the best experience I’ve had with a contractor in my home. It took four days and the contractor showed up every day on time and with a work schedule that was communicated to us in advance. The crew was accommodating to our family and didn’t falter even after being interrupted for a couple of hours for a media event.

The 3.99kW home array has 21 Silicon Energy Cascade 190 Watt modules and a Silicon Energy SiE-SIS-4.2 solar inverter. The system was installed by NW Wind & Solar.