Plugging into alternative power

By DENISE RUTTAN, Siuslaw News Jan 23, 2008
Reprinted with kind permission courtesy Siuslaw News (www.Siuslawnews.com)

Before he got into politics, Bill Fleenor was into alternative energy. In the 1990s, the West Lane County Commissioner started developing a self-sufficient system for his home just outside Mapleton. Today, much of the operation of his house relies on solar, wind and water renewable energy sources. He is also connected to the electrical grid and has a backup generator.

"The concept is that you have a buffet to choose from. Not every form of energy will be available at any given moment," said Fleenor. Fleenor first became interested in alternative energy when he was a teenager. His hobby was tinkering with everyday items and inventing new things. He used to take apart radios and put them back together. He designed a methane digester, a device used to harvest biogas, by welding together some 55-gallon barrels.

"My welding skills were not sufficient," said Fleenor. "There were holes everywhere." Fast forward a couple of decades. Fleenor met his wife, Kimberly, in 1990, and they got married a year later. She was his secretary when he traveled on business. She had a house in the Mapleton area that she had bought in her 20s.

"We had every intention of selling the house," said Fleenor. Fleenor was then the CEO of a family business that took himself and Kimberly to manufacturing and distribution plants in such places as Puerto Rico, Hawaii and Alaska. He "lived out of a suitcase" for several years, he said. But when Fleenor visited the house for the first time, he said they "fell in love with Mapleton and the entire area."

"It took about five years to extract myself from the business," said Fleenor. In 1998, Fleenor sold the business to his employees and became a full-time Oregonian.

Fleenor found out about a company called Real Goods, a California-based organization that sold the first photovoltaic, or solar, panel at retail price 30 years ago, according to the company's official Web site.

Fleenor's start in alternative energy happened when he experimented with the photovoltaic panels around 1998. Soon after, his house became a demonstration house for Real Goods products.

"As a demonstration house, you have an obligation to have an open house," said Fleenor. People from all over visited his house to learn more about solar energy, especially when he first installed the panels. He would give them a tour and explain how the system worked.

The house has four arrays of four panels each, all of which face the south. There is also a small windmill and a mini hydroelectric plant.

To work together, the power from all these sources, which starts at 48 volts, is fed into 16 large industrial batteries. The batteries are charged and the energy goes into an inverter, which inverts the 48 volts into 120 volts. Dual inverters create 240 volts. In the winter that kind of energy is plenty for heating, said Fleenor. "The higher the voltage, the more effort it takes to pump water and generate heat," he said.

But in the summer, the system generates excess power, which the Fleenor's sell back to Central Lincoln PUD. In the late 1990s, Fleenor ran for the board of the utility district, largely to see the utility develop a sell back policy, also called a net metering system, he said. "Within three years, Central Lincoln had a net metering policy ," said Fleenor.

If there is no sun, no wind, and the creek dries up, the house has 48 hours of capacity with the batteries. To back that up, they use a propane generator that can run the house for an hour by itself. They have a 500-gallon tank of propane.

"Over the years we have had to purchase power from the utility. We're not totally self-contained ," said Fleenor. "We would have to significantly scale down our lifestyle."

Were he to do his house over again, Fleenor said he would insulate more and invest in a pre-solar water heater. "The most bang for the buck in conservation is insulation. Insulate, insulate some more, and insulate more," said Fleenor. "The more directly you can get the energy source you use, the more efficient it is."

The Fleenor’s use a pellet stove to help heat the house, which he said is more energy efficient than a wood stove. "It has more radiant heat and often little smoke," said Fleenor. They use electric wall heaters to warm up rooms when they come home, which they turn on quickly to take the chill off. Their house has 1,000 square feet with a basement. It is on three acres on Highway 126 on the north side of the railroad tracks.

Their windmill is "rather small," an experiment to see whether Fleenor could use wind power. It is located in their orchard, where they grow apples, pears and plums. "It's a beautiful piece of land here," said Fleenor. "We're fortunate to be the guardians of this landscape."

They have an artesian well, water that comes directly out of the ground, as their main water source. The water they use does not require filtration. Their hydroelectric plant operates in a 3,000-gallon pond originally constructed by the previous owner of the property.

"If push comes to shove, we could live fairly comfortably without additional input from the utility," said Fleenor. But that would involve turning off computers all the time, unplugging appliances more often, and being more conscientious about heat sources.

Maintaining what they already have takes a lot of consistent work and ongoing maintenance. "I have gotten a good hands-on feel for what it's like to run your own utility" said Fleenor. "24/7 and 365 days a year is a lot of work."

He said the pond always has to be cleaned of muck and the pipes must be declogged of leaves, so the hydroelectric plant can run smoothly. The solar panels must be cleaned regularly with soap and water, and twice a year they must be adjusted for the best seasonal light. It takes about four hours to thoroughly clean each panel. The propane generator needs to be cycled regularly.

"You spend a lot of time improving how you generate your own power," said Fleenor. Having to stay on top of every power source all the time helps build a mindset of conservation, he said.

"You're more cognizant of the power you use," said Fleenor. "If everyone were intimately connected to their sources of power, they would realize how much effort it takes to produce power."

The bottom line for Fleenor is conservation, which he has turned from a hobby into a habit.
"I've always practiced a life of conservation," said Fleenor. "Just practicing conservation helps reduce demand. The less you consume, the less you need to produce. It's all part of the alternative energy paradigm."

Fleenor said the 10 years he has spent perfecting his system has taught him a lot about energy and consumption. "I always enjoy a good challenge. Putting this all together into one operating unit was like building a creation and seeing it function well," said Fleenor. When the grid goes down and everyone else's house is dark, the Fleenor house is usually the only one in the neighborhood with the lights on.

Fleenor hopes more people will learn about alternative energy and practice conservation. He periodically offers tours of his property to people interested in learning more about developing sources of alternative energy.

"My goal is to leave the smallest footprint possible in my lifetime . I'd like that to be part of the legacy we leave," said Fleenor. "We're one planet, one people and we should all be working together toward a common goal of sustainability."