Rhoades Building Products recently partnered with ReVision Energy
to bring renewable energy systems to the Downeast Region.
Above is a photo of the 4 kilowatt grid-tied photovoltaic array that
ReVision installed at Rhoades’ headquarters in Holden.

ReVision Energy and Rhoades Building Products formed a partnership earlier this year to offer renewable energy systems to builders, contractors and homeowners in the Downeast Maine Region.

ReVision Energy plans to open an office within Rhoades’ Holden location. The expansion into Downeast Maine is being led by co-owner Lee Landry.

Of the recent partnership Lee says “We are excited by the opportunity to merge our renewable energy expertise with Rhoades Building Products to offer the people of Downeast Maine the latest green building materials and practices. I am confident that our partnership with Rhoades Building Products will help us in our goal to transition Maine families away from fossil fuels to clean, efficient, renewable energy sources; to power our lives and heat our homes.”

More Photos from Our Commercial Solar Photo Gallery:

For more installations, see our Solar Projects Map

Solar hot water collector array
installed by ReVision Energy on
a home in Jackson, NH.

This evacuated tube system is
expected to reduce household
CO2 emissions by roughly
2,500 lbs. per year

February marked a new Dover, New Hampshire solar installer with the opening of a branch office of ReVision Energy LLC.

Dover resident Will Kessler is leading the project, with backing from a team that includes engineers from M.I.T and Brown, installers certified by the North American board of Certified Energy Professionals (NABCEP), and a crew of professionals experienced at installing robust renewable energy systems in our challenging New England climate.

We see a tremendous opportunity in New Hampshire to further our mission to reduce fossil fuel energy dependence and CO2 emissions. Technological advances in solar power and solar hot water collectors now make it economically and environmentally worthwhile to harvest sunlight at northern latitudes to produce renewable energy.  We’ve already proven that good solar energy can be harvested in Maine, and New Hampshire’s solar potential is just as good, if not a bit better.

Residents of NH have the opportunity to take advantage of an array of renewable energy financial incentives from New Hampshire’s Public Utility Commission, the federal government and individual utility companies, which enable solar technologies to pay for themselves within several years. Starting in July 2009, New Hampshire residents can receive up to $6,000 per solar photovoltaic system.

“We are battling the fact that roughly $1 billion leaves the state of New Hampshire every year when residents purchase oil, natural gas and coal-generated energy,” says Kessler, who has experience installing solar electric systems. “These state incentives are definitely a good step towards stopping that outflow of fossil fuel energy dollars.”

Contact our Dover, New Hampshire office for more information on a solar power or solar hot water system anywhere in the state of New Hampshire.

Two Meters: The top meter reads the amount of electricity the home is using; the bottom meter reads the amount of electricity the panels make. The bottom meter will spin backwards if the panels make more than the home is using at any given time.

Today we conclude the narrative of the Rhoda Family, one of the first ReVision customers to install three renewable energy systems:solar hot water, wood pellet boiler, and solar electric.

Yesterday we saw how investing in a pellet boiler allowed the Rhodas to dramatically decrease their use of fossil fuels for heating.

Chris Rhoda today explains why completing the system with clean energy from the sun is a wise investment in the future:

Prior to Charlie’s arrival I had read that 20% of a home’s water use can be toilets. My wife and I decided to change one of our three 3.5 gpf toilets to a 1.6 gpf toilet on the second floor to see if it would save on electricity since we had a whole-house Reverse Osmosis (RO) system. We knew we would save almost 7,000 gallons of water each year (10 flushes per day x 1.9 gallons x 365 days).

We were pleasantly surprised when receiving our next electric bill to find out it had dropped by $20. Later we came to learn that our RO system was over-spec’d. Our 220 volt motor was not required for hot water, 2nd floor toilets, or our washing machine. We also realized that we only had slightly elevated arsenic levels which affect our drinking and cooking only water but not our bathing, clothing, or dish washing water.

We decided we were best suited for a kitchen point of use iron oxide system versus a whole house point of entry system. We have now disconnected the whole-house RO system and replaced it with a point of use filtration system giving us safe drinking water in our kitchen and refrigerator ice maker. Other discoveries we made were that certain appliances were using watts when not in use.

For example an inexpensive radio was costing us over $1.30 per month simply by remaining plugged in all the time. We haven’t had time to investigate all of our electrical appliances, but plan to in the future. The fact that we started to take steps to reduce our electrical consumption put us in a good position to consider a solar electric or photovoltaic (PV) system.

While the payback is longer than hot water or wood boilers, we feel it will be a selling point for the house when we are ready to move in that direction. For now, however, this project was important enough for us to move forward with regardless of payback. The third path for our family was installing a 3.5kW solar electric system with the ability to add more panels in the future. This system is connected to the utility grid. Our utility provider installed a second meter free of charge. One meter reads the amount of electricity that our home is using; the second meter reads the electricity the solar panels are making. We then get billed or credited the difference.

In Conclusion: The installation technicians were both personable and conscientious throughout the processes. Some of the highlights so far are how little our oil furnace now runs, and how consistent the hot water temperatures are. Also, our house is much more comfortable now that we can heat it for less. We’ve raised the temperature in most rooms from 64 to 68 degrees and opened parts that were once closed off in the winter. One more bonus, we now have a warm basement due to our new boiler. There is a game room down there that is now more comfortable in the winter. The best feeling though is no longer watching the price of oil, as we’ve only used 30 gallons in the past 11 months, and especially looking forward to each sunny day.

We hope you’ve found the Rhoda family’s story as inspiring as we have – by reducing energy use and making smart investments in renewable energy technology, you can reduce utility bills significantly and subsequently help out the environment.

Review the whole project: Link to Part 1 – Rhoda Family Introduction, Part 2 – solar hot water provides immediate ROI, and Part 3 – reducing oil use with wood pellet boiler

The Tarm Multi-Heat Boiler

Today we continue the narrative of the Rhoda Family, one of the first ReVision customers to install three renewable energy systems: solar hot water, a wood pellet boiler, and solar electric system.

Yesterday we saw how installing a solar hot water system provided nearly immediate payback due to financial incentives and reduced energy costs.

Chris Rhoda today explains how adding an efficient pellet boilet reduced their oil usage dramatically:

It was suggested that installing an outside temperature sensor on our oil boiler would increase our oil savings by 5 to 10% each year. The price for this additional component was relatively inexpensive, making the payback short so we decided to do this along with the solar thermal system. John Luft also suggested at the time a wood boiler to offset the bulk of our oil usage. I’m not able to continually feed cordwood with my full-time job(s), so John suggested we consider a wood pellet boiler.

After much research I found out what the European’s had already discovered, that a lot of money can be saved each year for a relatively small amount of work. For our home’s heating needs we calculated that 8 tons of pellets per year would reduce the 1,300 gallons of oil used to less than 300 gallons a year and cost half the amount. I asked Revision to quote us a pellet boiler and also asked one other company.

It seemed only a few businesses were installing these boilers at the time. As my wife and I were refinancing our home we decided financially it made sense to add the wood pellet boiler at this time. Now the outdoor temperature sensor is saving us 5 to 10% of 300 gallons of oil, the amount we are averaging on an annual basis. The rest of our home’s heating and hot water needs are covered by wood pellets or by the sun. The systems run seamlessly with little maintenance.

The only item that requires regular maintenance so far is the daily ’scoop of ash and pour of pellets’ for the furnace, a 5 minute job each day, as well as cleaning the boiler every few weeks with a brush/vacuum. (Editor’s Note: today you can install a fully automated pellet boiler that mirrors the convenience of oil, eliminating even this minimal maintenance. See our sister site, ReVision Heat, for more information).

Solar thermal was our first path because of the payback and rebates. Wood was our second; the payback is almost as quick however there are no rebates or tax credits to take advantage of.

Today tere is now a tax credit available up to $1,500 for wood boilers installations, the $2,000 cap for solar hot water installations has been lifted, and the tax credit for solar hot water is 30% the cost of the job.

See our incentives and rebates page for more information, and contact sister company ReVision Heat for more information on a wood boiler system.

This narrative is continued to tomorrow, when we’ll learn how the Rhoda’s completed the “Hat Trick” with a clean solar power system that locks in their energy prices for 20+ years.

UPDATE: Link to Part 1 – Rhoda Family Introduction, Part 2 – solar hot water provides immediate ROI, and Part 4 – installing a solar electric (PV) system

Side angle view of solar hot water and solar electric collectors on roof

Yesterday we featured the Rhoda Family, one of the first ReVision customers to install three renewable energy systems: solar hot water, wood pellet boiler, and solar electric.

Today we continue a narrative by Chris Rhoda, focusing on their solar thermal (hot water) system.

Chris explains why the great state and federal financial incentives made solar hot water a no-brainer:

I had visited the Augusta Civic Center Home Expo last fall with my father and thought about having a solar thermal system added then. The one vendor I had contacted at the time hadn’t given me a quote so I contacted ReVision Energy and two others.

While Revision’s quote was slightly higher in comparison, I felt the most comfortable with John Luft’s knowledge on the systems and with the company’s reputation. Also having ReVision come to me recommended by Charlie was a good start since I was already impressed with his work and knowledge.

As we were in the middle of re-insulating our home we decided that was the time to move forward with the solar hot water installation. We were able to take advantage of the state rebate, then $2,500 as well as the federal tax credit, at that time 30% the cost of the system capped at $2,000. Because we calculated solar hot water to have the quickest payback, this was our first path.

This narrative is continued to tomorrow, when we’ll learn how the Rhoda’s added an efficient pellet boiler to dramatically decrease the amount of oil they use annually.

UPDATE: Link to Part 1 – Rhoda Family Introduction, Part 3 – reducing oil use with wood pellet boiler, and Part 4 – installing a solar electric (PV) system

The Rhoda Family installed solar hot water, solar electricity, and a pellet boiler system into their home.

For the next few days, we’re going to focus on a family who did what we call a Hat Trick: The Rhoda Family, who is one of our first clients to have all three of our systems installed in their home.

A solar hot water, wood pellet boiler, and solar electric system later – we wanted to know what inspired the Rhoda family to move forward with each of these projects, so we asked. Lucky for us, Chris and his wife were happy to share their thoughts and experiences. Below is their interesting story as to the processes and measures they took to restructure their home into one that is now providing almost all of its energy usage from renewable resources making this energy efficient home considerably close to net zero.

Narrative by Chris Rhoda

After moving to our new (new to us, built in 1989) 3,000 square foot home in Belgrade last April, we started upgrading our home cosmetically: repainting, re-shingling, etc. In mid winter it occurred to us that energy saving designs had not been on the minds of those who originally built the home. In our attempts to rectify, we first did the easy steps to improve our energy efficiencies. We replaced incandescent light bulbs with CFL bulbs, put shades in windows to keep in heat. In January we experienced an ice dam on the roof which caused leak damage. We were told the damage was presumably due to the heat in our house going into the shingles and decided then to find the root to our home’s heating inefficiencies; we decided to have an energy audit performed. From the State of Maine web site, I contacted three certified energy auditors listed and decided on Kennebec Home Performance (Charlie Holly) to do the work. Charlie projected competence and gave a ‘quick tip’ to check around the chimney for air leaks and then explained how to seal them.

During the audit, Charlie found lots of air leaks and suggested some easy projects I could do myself (electrical plate caulking/insulated covers, pipe wrap, etc). He recommended two companies for attic and basement insulation work and Revision Energy for solar thermal. He gave me some suggestions for measuring my electrical consumption and tips to lower it to prepare for the future installation of a solar electric system. ‘At that time my wife and I were also able to estimate our first year’s oil usage at about 1300 gallons. With rising oil prices, we had a strong desire to work on reducing that usage.

After gaining a sense of the energy we were using, we could make good decisions to what systems we wanted to move forward with. My focus was primarily business-related. Incorporating energy efficient systems to me was more about saving money, so items that had a quicker payback received higher attention. My wife, originally from Vermont, was primarily focused on the environmental aspects of energy efficient systems, how they would decrease the amount of fossil fuels we used, and reduce our carbon footprint. We both were inspired by our daughter to set a good example for her. Combining these focuses made doing these types of projects both interesting and helpful to us.

This narrative is continued to tomorrow, when we’ll learn how the Rhoda’s chose a solar hot water system for the quickest payback in a clean energy system.

UPDATE: Link to Part 2 – solar hot water provides immediate ROI, Part 3 – reducing oil use with wood pellet boiler, and Part 4 – installing a solar electric (PV) system

BioHeat is getting ready to run its annual spring sale! From April 15th thru May 15th you can save $500 on a BioHeat boiler. Or you can save $1,000 by purchasing a boiler with thermal storage mass. ReVision Energy currently carries 5 of BioHeat’s products. We have the Solo Plus, our most popular boiler option burning at 75-80% efficiencies. The Solo can be purchased with or without thermal storage, a great option if thermal storage is not right for you at this time. The Innova has superior heat transfer efficiencies, is easy to light, and has a smoke extraction passage to keep smoke from entering your home when opening its door; this boiler requires thermal storage. The Froling Turbo has unmatched efficiency of over 91%. It has a unique second ash removal door and ignition port for easy lighting. The Froling Turbo’s advanced gasification technology makes it the most efficient way to burn cord wood; this boiler requires thermal storage. If you have to replace your boiler, or do not have a flue readily available the Excel Multi-Fuel may be your option. The Excel is a wood and either oil or gas boiler combined. When you are heating with wood the oil or gas will remain off. Only one flue is needed for this heating system; thermal storage is required. For a pellet boiler option, we are carrying BioHeat’s Multi-Heat boiler. The Multi-Heat burns at 91% efficiencies and with its integrated hopper it can run for days on a single load of fuel. Look online at our wood boiler pages to get more information about these systems. Please call Bub at 899-6856 to place your wood boiler order today!

Want more?

You can get a FREE Termovar Loading Unit, a $595 value, just by paying for your boiler in full! Deliveries must be made by June15, 2009.

Recently the President signed into action The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). This bill, devoted to tax cuts and infrastructure projects, lifted the cap on the federal tax credit for residential solar hot water systems! The federal tax credit, originally capped at $2,000 is now 30% the total cost of the job. The act allows one to take the full 30% regardless of state rebates or financing.

Eliminating the cap for solar hot water systems will help make an investment more affordable and decreases the amount of time it takes for these systems to pay for themselves through energy and fuel savings. The changes to the tax credit for solar hot water in the stimulus bill match the federal tax credit already in place for solar power (PV) systems.

Another great piece of news is that when the stimulus package was signed into action a tax credit became available for high efficiency wood boilers. The new tax credit is 30%, up to $1,500 per household, for the purchase in 2009 and 2010 of a 75% efficient biomass-burning appliance.

If you would like to know more about how you can take advantage of the new stimulus bill, please contact ReVision Energy to get a quote for a system today!

Spring is approaching and there is no better time than now to think about a renewable energy system; start saving, and start reducing your dependence on fossil fuels.