Victorian House For Sale

Vintage Homes and Solar Power: Part 2

Last week in this column, I began a discussion about the issue of solar power as it concerns vintage homes. Can vintage homeowners install solar panels on landmarked/vintage homes and should they? The answer to the first part of this question covered last week is that nothing in the city of Monrovia’s preservation ordinances prevents a homeowner from doing so. That answers the “can” part of the question.

Here we tackle the second half of the question: should they? Let’s look at where we came from to give us some perspective. One hundred years ago, life was much simpler and electricity was in its infancy. In fact, many vintage homes were originally plumbed for gas lighting. These fixtures were readily and easily converted to electricity when it became available and were done so as gas fixtures were inherently dangerous to operate. Air conditioning was not yet available, so architects designed homes that helped mitigate the hot/humid conditions that exist in many parts of the country and allowed nature to do the work. 

Victorian homes had twelve foot ceilings, large double-hung windows, and transoms over doors to facilitate air movement. The arrival of the Craftsman style home brought with it large, over-hanging roofs to keep the sun off the interior of the home, and numerous windows allowed for breezes to move through the house. Architects often placed a screened room in the house to function as a sleeping porch where the family could spend the night in relative comfort.

The Day and Night Heater Company, which opened for business in Monrovia in 1909, offered a solar water heater for sale. It was developed by William Bailey and was able to store the hot water generated. It provided hot water 24 hours a day, hence the name of the company, Day and Night. So the use of solar energy is certainly not new to Monrovia.

Fast forward to today. Air conditioning is ubiquitous, and electrical appliances and gadgets abound in the average home. The cost to produce the electricity needed to run these devices continues to rise, promising to consume an increasing part of the family budget. Installing solar panels not only helps to relieve the demand on the power grid but does not impact the environment as do the by-products from burning coal nor generate spent fuel rods from a nuclear power facility that must then be safely stored for hundreds of years.

The two principal reasons not to use solar power are cost and visibility. If rebates are not enough of an incentive to install solar power, an alternative exists: lease the panels. Under this option, the homeowner does not pay for installation or maintenance. The monthly power fee is guaranteed for a pre-determined time (usually over 15 years), regardless of the amount of power consumed.

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