This 1400 square foot home is located on a small infill site in Stinson Beach, California (near San Francisco). The home has a combination of modern detailing and rustic materials. On the exterior, recycled fir ceiling decking offers a counterpoint to metal and cement board siding. With solar water and photovoltaic arrays, the home has a netzero annual energy use.
http://www.contemporist.com/2012/11/27/stinson-beach-house-by-wa-design/
We are in the process of installing solar. We are in the 5th tier for pricing from our provider, SCE. After reading a few articles concerning the solar installations out in the desert and their impact on future rates, it seemed a no brainer to get it done. Government cheese will pick up almost half the cost on a 6Kwt system and we should go zero or send some back onto the grid.
My grandmother and aunt lived over there in the 1950’s and 60’s. One of my earliest memories is being stuck in a playpen on a deck while the grown-ups shoveled the sand and muck out of my aunt’s log cabin after one of the big storms of the mid-1950’s. They lived over there because it was quiet and cheap compared to San Francisco or close-in Marin. If only my folks hadn’t sold the lot they bought for nothing, circa 1960…
Don’t see the utility of solar over there. It’s cloudy more often than not.