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Steve MacAusland generates all of his electricity for his Sandy Valley Road home from the solar panels mounted on his roof and on poles behind his house.
“Right now I haven’t paid an electricity bill in six months,” he said adding that the solar thermal tubes on his roof provide the heat for almost all the hot water he uses.
The 60-year-old Dedham resident opened his energy-efficient home to the community last Saturday as a way to educate residents on how they can make energy-saving improvements to their own homes.
MacAusland said he has spent between $35,000 and $40,000 on the solar panels and tubes. He anticipates that within the next five years, as a result of energy and heating bill savings, he will have obtained a full return on his investment.
“What I’m hoping is people can learn from what I’ve done here,” he said.
MacAusland also showed people his Honda Insight during last Saturday’s tour, which gets an average of 66 miles per gallon. He paid $20,000 for the hybrid and estimates that he has saved thousands on gas.
“I said ‘Let’s put the savings on the roof,’ ” he said of his solar panels.
He also showed visitors the other energy-efficient devices he has in his home, including a Viessmann oil-fired boiler, a fireplace insert to better distribute the heat and a front-loading Energy Star clothes washer.
While MacAusland said he has a clothes dryer, he admits that he rarely uses it. Instead his clothes are dried on a clothes line, one of the most energy-saving techniques he knows of, he said
MacAusland said he became energy-conscious 46 years ago, when he first heard about global warming. He said at that time realized the importance of conserving energy and using renewable resources, like solar power.
“I remember it like it happened today,” he said. “For some reason it stuck with me. I just got to the point where I said I’ve got to do something about this.”
MacAusland, who has worked as a teacher and a video producer, said he prefers solar energy to energy generated by wind and water.
Windmills constantly need to be maintained, while hydropower stations disrupt the natural flow of rivers, he explained.
He said he’s happy to see that more people are starting to care about saving energy and bettering the environment. He knows of a couple of other buildings in Dedham that have solar panels and has seen the formation of the Clothesline Gang and the Sustainability Committee, a couple of environmental groups in town.
As of 2 p.m. the day of his open house, MacAusland had conducted five tours of his home.
The Beebe family, of Milton, was interested in seeing what a solar system looks like. Jim and Susan Reardon, of West Roxbury, asked several questions of Pete Warren, a renewable energy consultant with Alteris Renewables who was also on hand last Saturday.
Alteris installed the solar panels behind MacAusland’s home, and the Reardons were interested in getting their own solar panels.
Steve MacAusland generates all of his electricity for his Sandy Valley Road home from the solar panels mounted on his roof and on poles behind his house.
“Right now I haven’t paid an electricity bill in six months,” he said adding that the solar thermal tubes on his roof provide the heat for almost all the hot water he uses.
The 60-year-old Dedham resident opened his energy-efficient home to the community last Saturday as a way to educate residents on how they can make energy-saving improvements to their own homes.
MacAusland said he has spent between $35,000 and $40,000 on the solar panels and tubes. He anticipates that within the next five years, as a result of energy and heating bill savings, he will have obtained a full return on his investment.
“What I’m hoping is people can learn from what I’ve done here,” he said.
MacAusland also showed people his Honda Insight during last Saturday’s tour, which gets an average of 66 miles per gallon. He paid $20,000 for the hybrid and estimates that he has saved thousands on gas.
“I said ‘Let’s put the savings on the roof,’ ” he said of his solar panels.
He also showed visitors the other energy-efficient devices he has in his home, including a Viessmann oil-fired boiler, a fireplace insert to better distribute the heat and a front-loading Energy Star clothes washer.
While MacAusland said he has a clothes dryer, he admits that he rarely uses it. Instead his clothes are dried on a clothes line, one of the most energy-saving techniques he knows of, he said
MacAusland said he became energy-conscious 46 years ago, when he first heard about global warming. He said at that time realized the importance of conserving energy and using renewable resources, like solar power.
“I remember it like it happened today,” he said. “For some reason it stuck with me. I just got to the point where I said I’ve got to do something about this.”
MacAusland, who has worked as a teacher and a video producer, said he prefers solar energy to energy generated by wind and water.
Windmills constantly need to be maintained, while hydropower stations disrupt the natural flow of rivers, he explained.
He said he’s happy to see that more people are starting to care about saving energy and bettering the environment. He knows of a couple of other buildings in Dedham that have solar panels and has seen the formation of the Clothesline Gang and the Sustainability Committee, a couple of environmental groups in town.
As of 2 p.m. the day of his open house, MacAusland had conducted five tours of his home.
The Beebe family, of Milton, was interested in seeing what a solar system looks like. Jim and Susan Reardon, of West Roxbury, asked several questions of Pete Warren, a renewable energy consultant with Alteris Renewables who was also on hand last Saturday.
Alteris installed the solar panels behind MacAusland’s home, and the Reardons were interested in getting their own solar panels.
