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The Renewable Energy site for Do-It-Yourselfers
Ten Projects with One Year Paybacks
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Here are ten+ projects that will
payback the money you put into the materials in a year or less.
Please see the important notes at the
bottom of the page!
If you think "one year
payback solar" is an oxymoron, have a look below.
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Insulation and
Weatherizing
| Insulation Caulking to
reduce air infiltration
Furnace duct sealing
 I like
this book by Bruce Harley -- I would suggest buying it, and going through
your house step-by-step using the book as a guide
More (free) insulation
guides.
|
The payback for self-installed cellulose insulation can be inside of a
year depending on your current insulation levels, climate, and fuel.
Also helps your cooling bill. Most houses (particularly older houses) have
high infiltration rates. A few tubes of caulking can pay big
dividends.
Furnace ducts that pass through unheated areas (e.g. attics) can be awful
heat wasters. A five dollar can of duct mastic (NOT duct tape) could
save a hundred dollars in fuel. To get an idea how much you might save,
try my new Insulation
Cost Saving Calculator. |
|
Air Sealing A good air sealing guide from SouthFace.org:
Air Sealing Guide (139K pdf)
Another very good Do-It-Yourself Guide To Energy
Star Home Sealing
Home Sealing Guide (1.8 MB pdf) |
 Good,
detailed guide on sealing houses to reduce air infiltration.From the
Southface website -- other good material on this site. |
Window
Treatments
Other
Conservation Projects
Other Energy
Conservation Ideas
Solar Space
Heating Projects
This is a simple $350 thermosyphon
solar heater that has no moving parts -- the cost is $2.40 per sqft.
|
Solar Barn/Workshop Gary There are several other thermosyphon solar
collectors |
 A
simple and inexpensive thermosyphon solar space heater for a garage, barn,
or workshop (or for a more finished space with some changes).
This project is in the Oct/Nov 2005 issue of Home Power Magazine. |
Another simple solar collector that
also provides improved lighting.
A really, really simple and cheap
scheme
Very Inexpensive Solar Shop Heater,
Don R. and George Waterman
http://www.motherearthnews.com
|
 Mother
Earth News article, Issue 48, Nov/Dec 1977 describes a very simple collector
for heating a shop.
The cost is kept down to almost nothing by using poly film glazing and some
scrounged parts.If you can scrounge the blower from an old furnace and
find some used lumber, this collector probably takes the prize for lowest
cost per square foot -- about 10 cents per sqft. The payback period
where I live is well under a month! |
Lots of other solar heating alternatives here:
Solar Space Heating
projects
The "Black
Roof" Solar Collector
This is a simple and cheap solar
heating system that uses your existing roof as a solar collector. If you
have the right combination of climate and roof it might well have a one year
payback.
"Black Roof" Solar Attic Heater
From "Solar Air Heating Systems", Steve Kornher and Andy Zaugg
The Black Roof
Collector
|
 This
is a very inexpensive system that uses your dark colored roof as a solar
collector. The cost is very low, and it can be installed with a
weekends work. It might supply about 15% of your heating needs.
It is not for all climates.
This extracted from the book "Solar
Air Heating Systems". |
Solar
Sunspaces
Solar Sunspaces attached to your
house can provide heat to the house as well as plant growing area. Costs
vary over a huge range (less than $1 per sqft to $90+ per sqft, but they all
heat with about the same efficiency. Sunspaces up to $3 or $4 per sqft
have very short paybacks. Greenhouse suppliers sell frame and covering
kits that make construction easy.
A simple half cylinder poly hoop
sunspace against your house can provide lots of heat at a very low cost -- life
of the covering is about 5 years, but its easy to replace.
Many more sunspace schemes here:
Solar Sunspace projects
|
Low-Cost Versatile Hoop Houses
George DeVault
Mother Earth News
http://www.motherearthnews.com |
 Mother
Earth News Article, Issue 196Good article on building and using “hoop
house” greenhouses, which provide a very low cost per sqft greenhouse. Some
construction detail. This technique could also be used for inexpensive
sunspace for generating solar heat for your house. |
Sunspaces built using twinwall
Polycarbonate or surplus/blemished double pane sliding glass door panels can be
attractive, durable, and still offer a short payback.
Solar Rooms --
excerpts from the book Passive Solar Energy, Bruce Anderson and Malcolm
Wells
To keep the cost down on your sunroom or greenhouse, use single or
double wall polycarbonate glazing, or double pane glass panels for sliding
glass doors that are surplus or blemished -- check with your local glass
shops. |
 This
set of extracts from the book Passive Solar Energy covers:
+ Types of solar rooms.
+ Design guidelines for solar rooms.
+ Construction details for solar rooms.
+ Pictures of example solar rooms. |
| Design and Installation Guide
Sundance
Design Guide |
 This is a good 20 page or so
sunspace/greenhouse construction guide. The Sundance
website
www.sundancesupply.com has more material. |
You can experiment with something
like this $22 sunspace to see if the concept works for you.
| Instant Sunspaces Laren Corie
http://www.rebelwolf.com/essn.html
|
 ESSN
Journal, Feb, 2005
A good article by Laren Corie on how to build and experiment with
inexpensive sunspaces. The example used in the article cost a grand
total of $22, and went together in a couple hours!
A free download. |
Many more sunspace schemes here:
Solar Sunspace projects
Solar Water
Heating
Batch solar water heaters can be
built for a few hundred dollars, or less than a hundred dollars if a used hot
water tank is used for the batch tank. A "typical" family of 4 uses
nearly $500 per year to electrically heat water, so these simple batch tanks
can be in the one year payback area. Natural gas users will see a
somewhat longer payback (at least until the gas rates go up again).
| The Integral Passive Solar Water
Heater Book, David Bainbridge
Download this book
This book is out of print, and difficult to get, but David Bainbridge has
agreed to make it a free download.
|
 This
is a really fine book on all aspects of designing and building a wide
variety of solar batch water heaters.
The book has a great mix of how-to and engineering design information --
great for builders and experimenters.Thanks to David, the full content of
the book is available
here as a free download. |
Many other
Solar Water Heating
Projects
Important Notes:
-
"Your results may vary" -- payback depends
on factors such as your climate, what you pay for fuel, your habits...
-
State or federal government
programs may pay some or all of the bill --
Incentive Programs
-
You must do a
solar site survey before you do
ANY solar project -- there is not much point in building a solar collector
that does not live in the sun!
-
People put too much emphasis on a
short simple payback period. A project that has a simple payback of
ten years still earns 10% per year, and the earnings are tax free and
inflation protected. Where are you going to find a better deal than
that? Especially one that is also good for the planet.
Gary
Rev 3/11/06
Tells
you where the cold air is coming from. You may be surprised.
A
really cheap and quick way to insulate windows that you don't need a clear
view out of.
A
simple DIY scheme for making highly effective insulating window quilts.
Electric
mattress pads consume little energy, and can allow substantial bedroom
temperature setbacks.
This
is a very simple an inexpensive way to turn your south facing
garage/workshop into a solar heated sunspace, and use your existing rollup garage door as
moveable insulation.
Detailed plans and performance data for a
simple batch solar water heater.