MORAN — Don Mann never realized how much fun it would be watching an electric meter.
The meter, just outside his farmhouse south of Moran, is nothing special. It’s like countless others; a simple series of dials measuring the electrical current his farm consumes on a daily basis.
But look closely enough at the bottom of the meter — the thin disc that rotates in correlation with the amount of power being consumed — and you’ll see something different.
It’s usually rotating backwards.
The phenomenon was made possible through Mann’s latest foray into solar energy.
A 16-foot by 10-foot solar panel, affixed atop an 8-foot pole in Mann’s yard, should generate enough electricity on most days to keep his meter running in reverse.
That is, he’s producing more electricity than he’s consuming “and giving power back to the power company.”
THE SOLAR panel was installed this week by The Stitt Group of Rogers, Ark., a construction company that specializes in building energy efficient homes.
Unlike other traditional solar panels, this apparatus is affixed atop the pole with a dual tracking system to follow the sun from dawn to dusk. (At night — and in times of strong wind — the panel lies flat.)
A light sensor helps orient the panel, explains Orlo Stitt, founder of The Stitt Group.
The sensor sends signals to a motor that connects the panel to an adjoining metal pole. The motor can tip the panel up or down, left or right.
So like a sunflower, the panel will continuously face the sun as it rises, goes overhead, then sets in the west.
“We’re kind of proud of it,” Stitt said. “This technology has been around for a while, but they keep improving it.”
THE ESSENTIALS of solar power remain the same, although the components and materials involved in photovoltaics — converting sunlight into energy — have advanced rapidly in recent years, Stitt explained.
The process is relatively simple.
The sunlight strikes, and is absorbed by the panel, which causes small electrons to vibrate, creating an electrical current.
The current is converted from DC (direct current) to AC (alternating current) and sent into the electric grid.
At the end of the day, after the sun has set, Mann then can draw on what electricity the panel has generated.
At the end of each month, if the meter is at net zero, Mann’s utility bill will be a flat $15 overhead charge.
“I figure my biggest bills will be in December, January and February, when I have to pay more for heating,” Mann said. “I’ll probably pay more those three months than the rest of the year.”
And even then, the costs of his 3,400-square-foot, two-story home will be miniscule.
That’s because it was built in 1980 with energy efficiency in mind.
MANN’S home, just off U.S. 59, is described as a “passive solar” house, with its largest windows facing to the south and with eaves just long enough to block sunlight from hitting the windows in the summer, but short enough so the sunlight can enter the house in the winter months (because the sun is lower in the southern sky.)
“Those windows save me quite a bit of money,” Mann said. “If it’s zero degrees outside, there’s still all kinds of heat coming through the glass.”
“Even 37 years ago, he knew to put in more insulation, better windows, better doors, and how to orient the home,” Stitt said.
And the home is built out of cedar, “the best insulating wood you can get,” Mann added
On top of Mann’s roof are two solar collectors, which provide electricity to fuel his hot water tank. They’ve done so since the house was built.
“They’re still working as they were designed 37 years ago,” Mann said. “The only thing we’ve ever had to replace was the hot water tank itself. I mean, those things don’t last forever.
“We were talking, trying to figure out how much those solar collectors have saved me over the 37 years,” Mann continued. “We figured it’s about $10,000.”
Stitt should know a thing or two about Mann’s house as well.
He was the one who designed it.
“Don was one of my first customers,” said Stitt, who has worked on designing and building energy-efficient homes in one capacity or another for the past 46 years. He helped oversee construction of one of the first ever solar houses, built in suburban Montreal in the early 1970s.
That was about the time of the infamous gas wars, when oil-producing companies in the Mid-East formed OPEC in order to have a firmer grip on production — and prices.
“I thought then it was as good a reason as any to be more efficient,” Stitt said.
MANN’S eyes light up when discussing “clean” energy, such as solar or wind power.
He also owns farm ground north of Moran, where a proposed wind farm could begin construction as early as 2018.
“If I wasn’t one of the first to sign up to lease my land, I was one of the first,” he said.
Mann was so excited to hear about the wind farm, he wrote a letter back to the wind farm developers, voicing his support.
“With this wind farm, you’re looking at 20 permanent, good-paying jobs, plus another 300 or so people they’ll need to hire to help with construction,” Mann said. “That helps the economy.”
“Energy efficiency is, and should be, a bipartisan issue,” Stitt agreed.
Best of all?
“I’ve been using solar energy on my house for 37 years,” Mann joked. “And the sun hasn’t sent me a bill yet.”
SOLAR FAR, SOLAR GOOD: Moran’s Mann turns to solar energy to power farm
