Mark Farrell

..ever since my brother, an energy economist, suggested in the mid-2000s that “we’ve got all the scientists, economists, and engineers we need working on solar energy, but what we don’t have is a populace educated in solar.

You’re the salesman – that’s your job!” In 2010, I got my first job in solar and have been in the industry ever since. My wife and I put solar on our home in North Portland in 2012, and, after we moved in 2017, we put solar and battery storage on this house. Our goals have always been to demonstrate the effectiveness of solar, to reduce our energy bill, and to “walk the talk” as it were. In the 9 years since the first system, the equipment has gotten a lot more efficient and robust. The individual solar modules produce twice the power as the old ones, the inverter system manages power on a module level, and the monitoring gives me a lot of data on how the system is working today and in the past.

Our solar and storage system was installed this past April by A&R Solar. I am the Oregon Sales Manager with A&R, so I did my own site evaluation and system design. At the moment, our solar photovoltaic system is overproducing on a yearly basis, but that’s because we are planning some additional upgrades that will boost electricity use while reducing natural gas use. Switching from gas to electric appliances and the future addition of electric vehicles will get us to a net zero position.

...It consists of 24 Qcell 30W modules, a SolarEdge Energy Hub inverter, a SolarEdge Backup Interface, a SolarEdge monitoring system, and Ironridge racking. With this system, we produce roughly 8,200kWh/year, while consuming only 7,600 kWh/year.

We installed 9.8 kWh of LGChem RESU10H lithium-ion batteries with a maximum output of 5 kW. At the moment this battery is for emergency backup only. We anticipate it to power some lights, a few plug loads, and the fan for the present gas heater. Once we get a second battery we can do a whole-home backup but for now, we are okay with the limitations. We are also part of the PGE battery storage pilot program where we allow them to discharge power as needed during specific peak events during the year, such as high heat events.

Within the next 24 months, we are planning to install an electric heat pump/AC, double pane windows, heat pump water heater I estimate that this will zero out our natural gas use but bump up our electricity usage by about 6,500 kWh/year, at which time we’ll need another 8 kW of solar that we have just about enough room for on the roof. We presently have all LED lighting in the home. Our thermostat set points are 65° in the winter and 78° in the summer.