The Home of the Future May Be Here Today

Enlarge Image Image Gallery CLOCKWISE FROM MIDDLE LEFT: Each solar cell in the roof panels is encapsulated in plastic?to provide it with protection against hail, rain, and dirt?before being installed by the workers .... This house?built by John F. Long Homes of Phoenix, Arizona?""runs on the sun"". Yet it looks as conventional as any other home on the block with the exception of the roof, which contains 7,200 solar cells capable of producing over 6,000 watts of electricity .... A close-up view of one roof panel shows the four-inch photovoltaic cells in detail .... Fill 'er up with electricity! . . . Long 's firm has three car models currently available for conversion to electric power: the Chery Luv truck, the Chevrolet Citation, and the Datsun B310 . . . .These meters record outgoing?as well as incoming?electrical flow. Surplus power is credited toward any purchased wattage

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Some Phoenix, Arizona residents not only earn credit on their monthly utility bills, but "fuel" their cars as well . . . with solar electricity!

Did you know that the roof of your house could probably supply you with all the electricity you'll ever need .... and keep your car running without any fossil fuels? Many of you probably have envisioned photovoltaic solar panels capable of such feats ... while thinking that their practical manufacture is ten or perhaps even 20 years down the road.

Well, I've got good news for you ... that future is here now. On May 29, 1980 an entirely solar electric house was completed by John F. Long Homes of Phoenix, Arizona. And that structure is only the beginning. Many other such residences are now being built to produce a surplus of electricity during the day . . . enough of an excess, in fact, to charge the batteries in an electric car or to be sold to the power company, offsetting any commercial "juice" the homeowner may use during nondaylight hours.

My wife and I were anxious to see Long's dream house for ourselves, so we took a trip to Phoenix. The home we visited was a modest, conventional-looking building . . . but was completely equipped with all the electrical appliances including air conditioning found in other residences in the area. In fact, the only visible difference between that dwelling and the neighboring homes was its south-facing roof, which was covered with 7,200 four-inch photovoltaic cells . . . wired together to produce over 6,000 watts of direct current (DC) electricity, which is then converted into standard alternating house current (AC) by an inverter that's about the size of a TV set.

GET A CHECK INSTEAD OF A BILL FROM THE POWER COMPANY

Any extra electricity produced, above and beyond what's needed by the solar home's residents during the day, is fed back into the utility company's powerlines as credit toward the purchased watt age used when the sun isn't shining. Two electric meters are employed: One records the amount of power coming from the utility into the house . . . the other registers the surplus solar power going to the electric company for credit. During its first near-year of use, the initial home has sold two kilowatts of electricity for each one kilowatt it buys from the utility. In effect, it's a small power plant!

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