The house stands as a symbol of experimentation, not just because of the presence of a technical apparatus on the roof-top but also owing to the novel thought involved.
The 3-KW roof-top solar system powering the entire house not only exports solar-generated electricity to the grid but also meets the house owner’s requirement.
The NGO’s Colony residence of A. Rammohan Reddy stands as a symbol of power conservation. While he replaced tube lights with CFL lamps, solar-powered lamps light his porch. “The dusk-to-dawn facility works as soon as it turns dark and shuts down at dawn,” Mr. Reddy, a former Canara Bank officer, said.
The ‘passive cooling’ methods employed by him include shade nets, potted plants and a tree canopy to block direct heat to a great extent.
Similarly, skylight provides cross-ventilation. “Using the thermodynamic principle, warm air is constantly pushed out from the house through the chimney. For this purpose, a wind-powered roof ventilator is used, which works 24X7,” said C.B. Jagadeeswara Reddy, District Manager of the Non-conventional and Renewable Energy Development Corporation of Andhra Pradesh.
The system is amusingly-advanced that K.R. Das, the Hyderabad-based Regional Director of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), was visibly surprised when he was requested to inaugurate the system. The special bi-directional meter records both import and export and provides details about the net electricity given and consumed. For surplus electricity, the department pays at a benchmarked price, and if consumption is more than production, normal tariff is paid.
Mr. Reddy is at present focusing on installing ‘batch solar water heater’, which is expected to further bring down the power bill.
