My home is likely over 150 years old. This area in Maple Heights, Ohio, was farmland, and this property was owned by a farmer named Theron Skeels at least in 1847, according to a Bedford map of the time - before Maple Heights as a city existed. I found farm handtools from the 1800s under the house. This old house is likely the first all-electric home, with solar panels, in Maple Heights today.
The home is under 1K sq ft, and was originally heated with a pot-belly stove in the living area, which was also used for cooking. It had no central heat/air when I moved in in 1985, and was upgraded to have ducts for natural gas in the 1980s, but we disconnected from the natural gas pipeline in 2019.
We use a 2.97kW solar system, with 9 panels on the south side of the western-style roof. YellowLite Solar installed, referred by Solar United Neighbors (a nationwide consortium that results in being able to trust the installer they pick, and lower cost).
The idea was to cover about one-third of the electrical needs. Production, use and exported energy can be monitored on an Enphase cell phone app. The highest electric use covered to date, for one day, was 67%.
The Enphase app allows for immediate feedback on energy use, for example if heat is turned up or down, if the washer and water heater are used, etc. It changed my energy use habits immediately, as what happened with my first Prius - using the dashboard.
This solar system cost about the same as a "beater car," at $6K bottom line or better after tax credits. If one can afford a car, one can afford rooftop solar. Three ways it pays back much earlier than just doing the simple math of bill savings over time: 1) With all-electric, in Ohio, there is no gas bill. With gas, you pay $36/mo just for the right to use the gas, before any usage costs, so $432 savings/year right there. Then there's the feedback on how to save energy via the Enphase app. My last bill was minus $5.
I also signed up for NOPEC for "apples-to-apples" on the PUCO website, and made sure I received the Maple Heights (aggregation city) rate -and asked for 100% renewable. So, what I pay First Energy is for solar and wind. I currently pay $.055/kWh, according to NOPEC last week.
If you have any questions, please email or call: LSekura@aol.com. 216-598-0113. Enjoy ! (PS - A write-up/diary about how I went all-electric is available upon request.)
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Other sustainable aspects of the house / Sustainable living:
- Wash in cold water only, hang dry - no dryer used in decades
- Blinds are used in summer to keep heat out - very few times has the heat pump been used for cooling, even in weeks of 90-degree weather. Blinds lifted in winter to let heat in - greenhouse effect.
- All electric is shut off when leaving the house, except security system, water heater and fridge.
- Most clothing is second-hand. Reducing plastic, trash and recyclables is a priority. All wet trash is "composted" - thrown in a pile with tree clippings, so a plastic liner for the trash is not necessary. I put out my trash about three times a year.
- Most food is purchased at the Shaker Square Market on Saturday mornings: locally grown/produced, organic. Most drinks are puchased in reusable containers: milk, kombucha - and free untreated water from a spring when I visit my family in PA. Working toward refillable wine, but do purchase local.
- Cleaning is mostly done with old bottled cleaners I've had for decades, or Bon Ami scrub, if needed. Most cleaning can be done with water and a resuable woven scrubber. Painting is only done if absolutely necessary.
- Due to my low-mow lawn, allowed by the city, the insect chorus at night is full, with at least 3-4 species of crickets and katydids - and cicadas in the summer because of the deciduous trees. The trees protect my house and neighbors' homes from some of the extreme weather, and save energy costs.
I don't live a perfectly sustainable life, but just continue to work toward that. It's all we can do.
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SUSTAINABLE CITY: Maple Heights, Ohio https://citymapleheights.com/
Maple Heights is a progressive city with a progressive mayor: Mayor Annette Blackwell - the first black female mayor in our history. It is walkable, bike-able, and with stores nearby. There is a community feel, and people interact in a friendly manner - everywhere - and are open and honest.
Homes are affordable and small. A small home saves thousands not only in heating/cooling, but in property taxes (which are already pretty low), and all sorts of maintenance.
"Maple," as residents call it, is only 12-15 minutes from downtown, and close to all main freeways, heading any direction. And it is home to Maple Heights Catering, which has been in business for decades, and is known as the best caterer in NE Ohio - and makes all its own offerings in-house.
We have a Cleveland Metropark, and other local parks, and greenspace, as well as a pretty good canopy, and the city is planting even more trees. I've been keeping a city species list, including on ebird.org, and red-shouldered hawks have nested right around the corner for years now.
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