Lynden Powerhouse Open House Tour with Sustainable Connections
Written by: Nicole Miller
Sustainable, innovative and efficient!
A couple weeks ago we were pleased to host a home tour of the Lynden Powerhouse project in conjunction with Sustainable Connections and with a presentation from Built Green! The clients were gracious enough to let us hijack their home for the evening for the event. The 3-hour event was a success, bringing in all different kinds of people with different backgrounds! We were all excited to share the success of the home.
Lynden Powerhouse is not only beautiful but highly advanced. Using its oversized solar array in combination with server battery backups, the house is able to run without contributions from the grid, and even spends the entire afternoon putting power back on to the grid, helping power the neighboring houses and reduce the need for a peaker plant!
Homeowner Bob presented to everyone the impressive data showing the solar production, battery charge, grid output and critical loads. He explained that their system runs entirely on their battery backup during the night (note the State of Charge (SOC) line from 0:00 to7:30am slowly reducing) but never getting below 30% charge, then as the sun rises, the PV system (note the green area) runs the home and charges the battery until it’s at peak charge around 1pm, then all the excess solar produced is exported back on the grid (note the yellow area). This is the cycle that repeats itself each day!
The home has also proved its efficiency during family gatherings – in peak summer heat with children running in and out of the doors and with 20 folks inside, the home still never got above 75° inside and still exported 75% of the PV electricity generated.
I don’t know about you, but we’d call that an epic success!
A huge thank you to our adored clients, the homeowners of Lynden Powerhouse, and to Sustainable Connections!
