Sun powers Maplewood house and car

Maplewood resident Andrew Bolin isn’t a prepper — someone prepared to survive a catastrophe. He did, however, have 10 solar arrays installed on the roof of his 100-year-old Sutton Avenue home recently.

“It’s a little bit of wanting to get off the grid, a little bit of cost savings,” he said. “I’m not super-environmental.” He was one of the last to take advantage of incentives offered by Ameren UE to go solar. Ameren rebates reduced his project cost from $6,000 to about $3,000.

Bolin’s house is the fourth or fifth Maplewood house to install solar panels. A car charger at the curb to charge his new Nissan Leaf electric car was part of the project.

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Kyle Barber, owner of EFS Energy, in Maplewood, who did the installation, said the solar energy will offset the cost of charging the Nissan. Bolin is also looking forward to reducing his air conditioning cost. “I don’t know if you’ve heard, but St. Louis is hot,” he said.

Barber said getting panels approved in Maplewood requires going before the Design and Review Board, which isn’t required in other local municipalities, but he said it hasn’t been a problem.

A bi-directional electric meter measures electricity going in and out of the house. If the solar produces more electricity than the house uses, it goes back to the grid, and Bolin gets a credit on his bill.

At some point, Bolin will have the option to temporarily cut his tie to the grid, and have the solar panels charge his car battery, which he can then use to power his house.

Barber said the system will pay for itself in five or six years.

“This is an investment in energy,” he said. “It’s kind of hard to put your head around. With additional energy costs, (as electricity becomes more expensive) it gets sizable over the warranted life of the array.”