new hampshire's
     sustainable energy resource

Jim Van Valkenburgh

Site Address 101 Cheney Avenue, Peterborough, NH 03458

Google Map of Address
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Region Monadnock

Architect Home Designer: Huntley Construction (company no longer active)

Year Built 1985

Year of PV 2006

Building Style Colonial Saltbox

Our saltbox Colonial style home is on a north facing one acre in town lot with excellent sun exposure. At about 2200 square feet, this is not an exotic or very expensive home--that is why it is the perfect example of what is possible using standard home architecture on a well selected lot. Back in 1984 the builder created a beautiful, sunny and quite energy efficient home. Even on cloudy days the house is filled with daylight. In all seasons the views out of the sunroom are quite nice.

The main solar feature is a south facing sunroom that is well used all summer and winter as an active part of our living space—although it is officially unheated space. The sunroom provides lots of welcome heat and sunshine during the fall, winter and spring. On a sunny but cold winter day, the bright warmth in the sunroom is almost unbelievable and it is highly therapeutic!

This is a very simple “solar heating system”. During the day we open the door and two windows. At night and on cold, cloudy days we close all of these to keep the heat in the main part of the house.

The home interior has a lot of natural pine paneling, floors and trim. The open concept living room/dining room/kitchen is nicely lit by natural light through windows and skylights from sunrise to sunset. The open concept allows for a nice flow of heat through the house, no matter what the source. The many windows towards the north are small to minimize heat loss but they also keep a traditional look to the street side.

Three summers ago we installed a solar domestic hot water system on the roof. Years earlier the builder had thoughtfully run copper pipes from the attic to the old electric water heater in the basement which was leaking at the time of this decision. A new tank was installed which had a heat exchanger at the bottom and an electric element at the top (our back up fuel). We have two 4 x 8 collectors flush mounted on the roof at about a 30 degree angle, due south. The system is filled with antifreeze for an uncomplicated installation.

Having live here for 11 years we know the energy use of the house quite well. An oil forced hot air furnace is in the basement and our woodstove is in the middle of our open plan kitchen/living room. The average annual fuel consumption for space heating is a combination of 350 gallons of oil plus one cord of wood—most of which is burned in the colder parts of winter.

Our hot water used to cost about $500 a year in electricity (Quick recovery metered) but that has dropped to less than $150 since we installed 2 flat plate collectors for water heating.

This house has 6" walls, tight construction and very good solar orientation. Sunroom: Stick built. Solid wood frame roof with 2 small venting skylights. South glazing is comprised of 7 - 34” x 76” x 1” double glazed sealed units with Low E tempered glass. (approx 120 sq ft of glazing). End walls have operable doors with screens for summer ventilation.

Solar DHW: Two 4x8 hydronic Collectors manufactured by Stiebel Eltron Inc. of Germany. The 80 gallon Sepco solar stone lined tank is in the basement. Driven by a Taco pump controlled by a new Stiebel Eltron digital controller with summer overheat cooling mode (we found this very beneficial). Antifreeze circulates from collector to copper coil in base of tank. Electric element in top of tank provides back up heat as needed. Plumbing installation was done by Wilder Plumbing and Heating of Peterborough. The collectors were attached by the roof by the owner and friends. The solar system installation had a gross cost of $5,502, parts and labor. The following year we received a Federal Income Tax Credit of $1651 resulting in a cost of $3851. However since the water heater was leaking, we needed to make a replacement anyway at an estimated expense of $851. So we call this a net cost of $3000 Payback of the solar water heater is an interesting matter. The system became active on September 16, 2006 and the electricity savings began immediately. Two adults live in the home most of the year. These results are based on an average of 3 prior years of separately metered electricity for annual hot water annual use in Kilowatt hours. Before the system was installed we used 3475 kilowatt hours. After two years of service we use just 1131 kilowatt hours on average per year. This is an annual savings of 2344 kilowatt hours. The current rate for “uncontrolled hot water” is $ .1353 per kilowatt hour So our annual savings at current rates equals $317.14 This makes the direct payback of our system 9.5 years (realistically this is 10 summers). Comment: If we had more people living here (teenagers) our consumption of hot water would be much higher than it is now. The summer is a time of excessive hot water production and we cannot possibly make full use of it. But using excessive amounts of free hot water is an enjoyable summer luxury that is hard to explain. When it produces too much we constantly look for things to wash in the laundry and people who need showers! Perhaps we should have tilted the collectors much more steeply on the roof, deflecting some summer sun and enabling them to collect more in the winter half of the year.

Our home is one mile from downtown Peterborough. It is at 101 Cheney Ave, very near the intersection of Cheney and Old Street Road. The easiest directions are from the 101/202 traffic light in Peterborough. Go east on Route 101 about 1/2 mile to the flashing light at the intersection with Old Street Road/Route 123. Turn left onto Old Street Road. Travel about 1/4 mile to the first left hand turn, Cheney Ave. We are the first house on the left--a dark green colonial with white trim. Lat:42.870585 Long:-71.941273. Geocode: a:4:{s:4:"name";s:41:"101 Cheney Avenue, Peterborough, NH 03458";s:4:"date";s:16:"2008-09-09 13:31";s:7:"geodata";a:1:{i:0;a:6:{s:2:"id";s:2:"p1";s:7:"address";s:43:"101 Cheney Ave, Peterborough, NH 03458, USA";s:8:"accuracy";i:8;s:8:"latitude";s:9:"42.870585";s:9:"longitude";s:10:"-71.941273";s:8:"altitude";s:1:"0";}}s:5:"error";N;}