National Tour of Solar Homes, October 13, 2001


As a part of the National Tour of Solar Homes sponsored by the American Solar Energy Society, a few of us from the UD Solar team joined several homeowners and business owners for a local tour led by Thomas Lampros, on October 13, 2001. The weather was perfect for us to see several forms of solar energy technologies in action in four homes. Here are some photos of this very educational 5-hour tour.


Visit Dane Holland's house at 10:45AM. 24 PV panels rated at 2.4 KW (AstroPower SunUPS system) are seen in this picture facing south. This system is grid-tied and has the added feature of being a stand-alone backup system in the event of a power outage.

A 1.2 KW system at Krussman's was visited at 11:30AM. The system needs a better location to avoid competing the sun with a large tree.

This 2 KW AstroPower SunUPS system at Stiner's provides about 30% of energy needs for this home. At 12:10PM, this system actually generated 1.2 KW.


We arrived at Dr. Karl Boer's home at 1:40PM and were greeted by both Dr. and Mrs. Boer.

``I prefer to cover the whole roof with PV panels.'' Dr. Boer described this 12.5 KW system on the roofs of his guest house. He explained how he continued to make discovery at home on solar energy.


``Now watch the meter turn backwards.'' Dr. Boer showed the utility meter and a data log box for the 12.5 KW system.


1973 was a very special year for the Boer's family, when Dr. Boer built Solar One at the University of Delaware and Mrs. Boer gave birth to their second child, as this sculpture on their property indicated.