Solar Powered Homes

Solar-powered homes have been around for decades, and while they’re quite popular with people with money, others would have them if the cost wasn’t already so prohibitive. Solar energy costs can range from $35,000 to $250,000, and you really can’t achieve cost-recovering savings for installing solar energy panels just yet. It comes as technology changes, and in some states, people who hit a certain percentage of solar will get rebates, but overall, it’s a loss; at least for the people who originally installed it.

It’s not just solar panels; actually, it’s not even primarily solar panels. The problem is the batteries, which have not yet been efficient or powerful enough to store all the energy that the panels can produce. At least not on the cheap end of things.

Of course, if there is a perfect state to take advantage of solar energy, it is California, especially in the Los Angeles area, where it does not rain as much nor is it usually very cloudy. Solar panels actually don’t look bad when mounted on top of a house, and some designers have figured out ways to make solar panels look like fancy editions to some homes.

Another thing that is happening in the Los Angeles area is that the city itself is looking to move towards more use of solar power, having faced rolling blackouts in recent years due to excessive consumption; Much more energy is needed to cool a city than to heat it. The idea is that they could reach at least 10% by 2020; ambitious, but proof of how far solar technology has to go.

Still, celebrities have led the way. Although people now think of Begley Jr, one of the first celebrities to lead the way in solar energy was Dennis Weaver, who first built his house out of old tires and other recycled materials, then added solar panels and solar batteries to mix. Come to think of it, the construction of his house should have been minimal, but by adding solar power, the house ended up costing over $500,000 in the late ’80s, in Colorado no less.

But his was an example of what other stars in the Los Angeles area could do. Some celebrities who have followed this path include Jackson Browne, Larry Hagman, Julia Roberts, and Edward Norton. Norton even goes further by paying for solar for a low-income family every time a celebrity installs solar panels on her home; that’s a nice way to give back to the community.