Jim Jordan poses with one of 9 recently installed solar photovoltaic modules at his home in Maplewood.

    Jim Jordan of Maplewood, Missouri not only talks the talk, he walks the walk.   A curator of education at the Saint Louis Zoo, Jim designed his 6 year old home with sustainability and universal access as the primary goals.  In acheiving a net zero lifestyle Jim emphasizes the importance of behavior choices in acheiving his goal.  Gardening is also an important component of his homestead and two bee hives provide pollination services to the neighborhood.  Solar photovoltaics were installed in June, 2010 to generate the equivalent amount of electricity consumed in a year.         

     The home is a 2000 square foot ranch on a large urban lot almost 1/2 acre in size.  The home has an attached garage forming an L shape with the main part of the home oriented due south.  Jim’s son Aidan was born developmentally disabled and as a result of his handicaps Jim made sure the home was  built universally accessible.  For supplemental winter heating there is a wood burning stove in the living room, which heats the entire home.   Jim uses the wood stove on average a total of about 14 days per year.  Efficiency and sustainability measures of the home include cellulose insulation in walls and ceilings, a tank-less Bosch gas fired electronic ignition hot water heater, high efficiency HVAC, a convection microwave and induction cooker for summer use, ceiling fans and a whole house attic fan to cool the interior of the house, compact florescence light bulbs, double pane argon filled windows and mock french doors, clothesline to air dry laundry and a vegetable garden to provide locally grown organic produce for the household.         

Workers from The Energy Savings Store mount PV modules on Jim Jordan's roof

 With such a small electricity load, Jim is able to netmeter his bill completely with a relatively small solar electric array.  Consisting of 9 Sharp 235 Watt modules, the nominal system size is 2.1 kW.  Jim chose Enphase microinverters instead of a centralized inverter for the benefit of module level power point tracking which optimizes the system and system performance monitoring on a per module basis.  The entire system installed for $6.25/watt.  The system was installed in the course of a single day by The Energy Savings Store, a solar installation company owned by Bob Solger and headquatered in Lenexa, Kansas with a sales office in Webster Groves.         

     An active member of Show Me Solar, Jim’s home will be one of the solar systems featured on this fall’s solar tour, October 9th.  Show Me Solar has been working closely with Jim to document the details of his home which he will share during a special one day Saturday workshop this October 23rd.  If you have details to share online at ShowMeSolar.org to help us build a virtual tour of installed and working solar systems please contact Jeff at jowens@showmesolar.org.