Chronicles of Climate Action: Tax Credit Victory for the Perdue Household!
Read this and other success stories of climate action chronicled every Friday from now through mid-October! We are currently gathering teams of households eager to take on Season Four of our Home Energy Challenge. We hope these success stories inspire your household to join!
Success Story: The Perdue Household
We love engaging with teams made up of coworkers! In Season Three, we had two teams of coworkers – The Safeties and the Perdue family’s team, Data to Savings (shown above), which is made up of coworkers from the local software engineering company, CCRi.
The Perdue household started off the season with a bang by installing solar panels on their Belmont home in October 2019. Similar to many homes in the Belmont-Carlton area, this home was built in the 1950s and is slightly under 1,900 square feet. Given the age of the home, energy improvements would need to include energy efficiencies in addition to an investment in renewables. The Perdue family decided to move ahead with solar panels before taking on efficiency projects so they could take advantage of the full 30% federal tax credit available in 2019. The tax credit is set to diminish every year (it’s 26% for 2020) and expire by 2022. After receiving quotes from Altenergy, Sigora Solar, and SunDay Solar, they moved ahead with Altenergy for installation.
Once the panels were installed, the Perdues were quick to address the home’s energy efficiency. They replaced all of their halogen lamps with LED lamps, installed new triple-glazed windows, added thicker insulation to interior walls, and replaced their heat pump with a more efficient model.
With solar panels and energy efficiency improvements, the Perdue’s have produced about 70% of their energy use. Longer days and more sunshine during the summer months will likely increase this average. By producing most of their energy needs with solar, they can remove up to 6 tons CO2 annually from local carbon emissions!
The Perdue family estimates, based on current production averages and energy rates, that the payback period will be 13 years. The average lifetime for rooftop solar is up to 30 years, which means they will be enjoying many years of free to low-cost energy in their homes.
Way to lead the pack, Perdue family!
If you or someone you know is interested in joining the Home Energy Challenge, contact andrea@theclimatecollaborative.org.
Read about the McElwain household next!