Plenty of people talk about wanting to live greener lifestyles... but for many Americans the cost of cutting their carbon footprint is still too high, especially when it comes to home improvement...
But some central New Hampshire residents are trying to change that... They've found a way to use their weekends, to help reduce the cost of going solar. NHPR correspondent Shannon Mullen has the story.
A cheery sign beckons volunteers from the top of Kevin Frank's driveway on a drizzly Saturday morning. (Shannon Mullen, NHPR)
It's a drizzly Saturday morning, perfect for staying in bed or making pancakes. Instead, about 40 people in rain gear are doing free manual labor in Kevin Frank's back yard in Holderness.
Frank: "We’re putting up a solar collector array…"
Mullen: "in the rain… "
Frank: "In the rain and it’ll provide radiant floor heat as well as domestic hot water."
By the end of the day Frank's new solar water heater will be helping save the planet, and he'll have saved thousands of dollars in installation costs -- using volunteer labor instead of professional plumbers and contractors. So what's in it for the volunteers?
Adams: "We’re eventually probably going to be going to everyone’s house that’s here today and putting in a system."
Peter Adams runs a nonprofit called the Plymouth-Area Renewable Energy Initiative, or PAREI. Its mission is to make solar more affordable by reducing the up-front investment.
PAREI members go to each other’s houses, Adams teaches them some plumbing skills...
PAREI Co-founder Peter Adams teaches basic plumbing skills to the volunteers working to install the network of copper pipes that will conduct heat from Kevin's solar collectors on the roof to his basement water tank. (Shannon Mullen, NHPR)
Adams: "All right, so who wants to learn how to solder? Raise your hand… "
Then everyone spends a Saturday helping install a solar water heater.
They call these group efforts - “Energy Raisers”.
Jones: "We certainly kinda stole that saying from the Amish, with the whole concept of barn raising..."
Co-founder Sandra Jones says installing a system this way saves 2500 dollars in labor costs,
That brings the price for the average four person household down to about 2000 dollars - after federal and newly-approved state tax rebates.
"Definitely opens the door for solar for people where that much money makes a difference for them in their budget and I have to say that was my case too. (laughs)"
Another case in point - volunteer Ted Stiles has a green conscience, but he also has a family and a public high school teacher's salary.
Stiles: "I’m trying to work on lowering our environmental footprint - I have two kids that are 4 and 6, and we use quite a bit of hot water."
Stiles says putting in a solar water heater could save him hundreds of gallons of heating oil a year.
Stiles: "With the price of oil being what it is, that means in two or three years something like this would pay itself off on our house."
Like most of PAREI’s 250 members, Stiles is no handyman. But despite the lack of expertise, the group's done more than two dozen energy raisers so far, with only a few minor mistakes.
Jones says working with solder seems to make the volunteers forget they’re adults.
Eric Bose, a recent New Hampshire transplant from Oregon, inspects a solar collector tube before installation. (Shannon Mullen, NHPR)
Jones: "Woo hoo! Time to put the tubes in everybody!"
It’s mid-afternoon and the volunteers are about to install the last piece in Kevin Frank’s solar heating system.
They're attaching dozens of glass solar tubes to his roof. The way this system works - as the sun beats down on the tubes, a vacuum inside acts like a coffee thermos to insulate the liquid warming up inside.
Then the heat gets transferred to a basement water tank. The volunteers pass the tubes along an assembly line, up a series of ladders to the roof.
Jones: "You guys look Amish up there, looks cool, like you’re on an old barn or something."
The volunteers here say New Hampshire might have a higher per capita rate of carbon consciousness than some other states.
But the solar energy raiser concept should be doable for anyone with a roof, some friends, and maybe some coffee and donuts to help entice them out of bed on a Saturday.
For NHPR News, I’m Shannon Mullen.
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