Case Study: Marshall, NC homesteader completes green home with rooftop solar

When designing his home in WNC, Richard Gustafson and his partner Jen incorporated renewable energy into the building process, making their homestead vision come to life with a low environmental impact.

The Opportunity:

Richard Gustafson moved to Marshall, NC with the dream of building a farm and home from the ground up. With a career background in natural resource conservation, he’s mindful of his personal impact on the environment — sparking the decision to work toward a self-sufficient home.

When Richard began designing his home, he saw an opportunity to incorporate solar energy into his plans — adding value to his home, saving on energy costs, and positively impacting the environment.

The Work:

Type: A grid-tied, rooftop solar electric system with battery backup

Solar Panels: 10 Mission solar panels creating a 3.6 kW array

Inverter: Solar Edge

Battery backup: LG Chem

Installed: November 2018

Installers: Sugar Hollow Solar

Sugar Hollow installed a rooftop solar electric system with a 9.8kw LG Chem for battery backup. Richard’s solar panel system works off of the sun’s energy. When sunlight hits his solar panels, they convert the energy to DC (direct current) electricity. The energy then flows to his Solar Edge inverter to convert the energy from DC to AC (alternating current) electricity. The AC energy powers his home cleanly and efficiently.

On cloudy days, or when solar energy is not directly available, Richard receives stored power from his battery backup system.

The Result:

By utilizing solar energy, Richard cuts down on carbon emissions, staying true to his environmental commitment.

As a result, his monthly power bill has decreased by about half the amount he was paying previously. While this is a great benefit of integrating renewable energy, his total savings on the system are quite a bit lower than industry standards, because most solar panel systems work through net-metering. This is a specific type of billing system that allows solar owners to receive credits on their monthly utility bills that are equal to the power they produce. Unfortunately, Richard wasn't able to benefit from this policy because his electric utility doesn't offer it.

Net-metering is a controversial issue in North Carolina since it's not mandated across the state. In fact, the policy doesn't currently serve residents who are in utilities outside of Duke Energy, Progress Energy, and Dominion North Carolina Power. This is the case for Richard and for many others across the state as well. Without net-metering savings, homeowners bear a bigger financial burden for making the switch to solar energy.

But there’s hope. We look forward to a progressive future where government policy and public utilities take more responsibility for shifting us away from fossil fuels to renewable energy — saving homeowners, like Richard, from having to make the difficult choice between having a sustainable home and receiving a solid return on their investment.

In their words:

“I chose to install a solar array to complement the design of my home, which was built with passive solar design and relies solely on wood heat. I also try to limit my personal impact on the environment, and solar power helps.

With the installation, I was hoping to decrease my power bill, cut personal carbon emissions, add value to my home, and have a backup power source. While the system did decrease my bill, I thought I would save more money.

The investment into the system has saved me about 1,100 dollars in three years. That means it will take roughly 50 years to pay for itself, barring rate increases and counting the 30 percent tax credit. The high cost of the system — due to the battery backup — was necessary because my power provider doesn’t allow net-metering.

Though it has yet to prove a good investment financially, I am satisfied in other ways. If you live in Asheville, and have Duke Energy as a provider, I would highly suggest solar as a sound investment.”