EXAMPLES MAINE MARSH HOUSE, CAPE PORPOISE, ME The Marsh House in Cape Porpoise, Maine, is one of six local solar installations in this coastal area. Completed in December of 1995, this three-bedroom, 177-m2 (1900-ft2) home was rented to a family who got through the worst New England winter in decades without being hooked up to the grid! How did they do it? With PV modules, efficient power management and high insulation values. There are 22 photovoltaic modules (AstroPower, 65 watts each) on the south-facing house roof with a capacity of 1430 watts at 24 volts DC. They connect to 20 6-volt Deka lead-acid batteries rated at 1750 amp-hours. A Trace Engineering SW4024 delivers 110-volt house current for family use. A SunFrost RF-16 refrigerator/freezer draws its power directly from the 24-volt battery bank. There is a Honda 5-kW backup generator, but it has only been used twice. During most of the year, the batteries are fully charged before noon and the home's modest electrical needs allow the Marsh House to get through most of the winter without needing the generator to recharge the batteries. A propane water heater provides hot water for domestic use and radiant floor heat. The average propane bill during the winter was around $40/month (including cooking and clothes drying), due in part to the high insulation values attained, R-50 in the walls and R-75 in the ceiling. The owner, Naoto Inoue, is in the process of hooking up the used Sunmaster thermal collectors on the garage so that the house can generate most of its own hot water in the future. This is a fine example of solar power doing its work quite effectively in New England latitudes. You don't have to live on an oppressively hot desert to enjoy the benefits of solar power.