MAKING MUSIC, GOING GREEN

BY WILLI MILLER
PHOTOS BY GREG GARDNER

For John Eriksen, living green is old news. It wasn’t the trendy thing to do back in the 1950s, when he was growing up on a Nebraska farm that was off the grid — it was the only way to have electric lights and appliances. Residents in the rural area had to provide their own electricity, getting power from wind turbines that charged banks of glass-jar acid batteries to power the 32-volt home systems, Eriksen said.

The local general store sold 32-volt appliances: vacuums, toasters, pumps, irons, radios and lights. When power lines were extended into the farmland, however, “everyone jumped onto the grid for ‘low-cost’ electricity and disposed of their wind generators.” He credits that early experience with what would become a lifelong interest in alternative energy sources and conservation practices. Two decades later, as a licensed building contractor in California, he built his own geodesic dome, surrounded by four mountainside acres of organic garden.

Eriksen has had his Florida contractor’s license since 1985, a year after he moved here from California. For more than 20 years he specialized in custom home building in Florida, always with the environment in mind. And then he discovered a product that would take him to the cutting edge of alternative energy. Eriksen is now a proponent of photovoltaic systems that produce electricity to power homes.

The photovoltaic system Eriksen uses is a solar laminate that bonds to roofing material and becomes an integral part of the building. The product is made in America by United Solar Ovonic of Michigan, pioneers in the photovoltaic field. Eriksen is a dealer for the thin-film material and recommends it to his clients. Although he builds it into his designs, it has to be installed by a licensed electrician.

“It has a Miami-Dade product approval rating of 140 mph and no roof penetrations,” Erikson explains. “The laminate is just one part of the system. Inside (the building), there is a real-time solar production monitor that reads data from a Web site connected via broadband to a transmitter located within the inverter (the device that converts the direct current produced by the solar panels to household alternating current.) The monitor reports electrical production in real-time, recording current real-time production, today’s production to date, this week’s production to date, this month’s production to date, and lifetime production since start-up.”

GOING GREEN
When Erikson and Cindy Kessler, owner of Stuart School of Music, married two years ago, the environment hadn’t been a hot topic of discussion in their courtship, but when the subject of remodeling the school came up last spring, making it a green project was inevitable.

“John told me about solar energy and how the thin laminate panels worked. I was fascinated! I wanted to see all the costs and expenses in front of me,” Kessler says. “As soon as John showed me that our plan would work, I was on board. We compared the cost of new construction with the cost of renovation. We wanted to emphasize energy conservation along with a fresh look.” Their goals: give the school a complete face lift, add two new studios and reduce energy costs.

“Permitting was easy,” Kessler says. “The city of Stuart is ‘pro-green.’” Eriksen added that the concept has become completely accepted on the Treasure Coast. “Most, if not all, electric utility companies are participating with interconnection agreements and, in most cases, net metering (metering the energy consumed and produced when a renewable energy source is in place).”

A GREATER AWARENESS
Too many variables are involved to give any kind of ballpark estimate for converting to photovoltaic power, Eriksen says. “Remodels generally make much more sense because the greenest building is the building that already exists. The footprint is in place and the community impact has already been made. A remodel and renovation can bring a fresh look and lessen the existing environmental impact.”

Kessler was environmentally aware before the school renovation took shape, but she says, “This project has opened my eyes and created a greater awareness.”

Her students share her excitement. “They absolutely love their ‘new’ environment! I’ve gotten such a kick out of watching their reactions when they see the school for the first time. Without fail, their mouths will open wide and a comment will follow, ‘This is awesome!’ A lot of the students are studying energy and environmental conservation in school, and they are proud that their music school is doing its part.”

The photovoltaic system at the school produces 30-40 percent of the power used. “Solar doesn’t really ‘run’ anything because the power source varies so much from sunup to sundown and, of course, during periods of clouds and rain showers,” Eriksen explains. “It does not completely offset our air conditioning load because AC is the main source of electricity demand. We ‘sell’ power back to the utility at the same retail rate when the sun is shining and we have low electrical demands (such as on weekends when the school is closed). However, the best way to explain is that we are offsetting our bill. If we offset our bill to the point where we would have a credit in our account, FPL would reconcile our bill annually and actually send us a check for the overage at retail rates! We are not independent of the grid; we are offsetting our electrical demand.”

Going green isn’t necessarily an all-or-nothing concept, Eriksen says. “There are all degrees of ‘green,’ starting with replacing just one incandescent light bulb with a CFL or LED, or replacing one faucet or toilet with a water-saver model. Your first step (toward green living) is the first degree.”