All sorts of things, but these come immediately to mind:
* rooftop PV solar, perhaps even solar tiles * home batteries (especially when facing or electing for hourly pricing grid electrical rates or for power backup for grid outages ) * shared ground or pond sinks/sources for thermal heat pumps * passive home inspired upgrades to insulate, seal, and end thermal bridging * induction stovetops * electric vehicles * electric maintenance equipment (leaf blowers, snow blowers, lawn mowers)
More forward looking:
* shared thermal battery (such as a sand battery perhaps buried underground * green hydrogen or synthetic propane derived from green hydrogen compressed for outdoor grills, as well as indoor or outdoor fireplaces (gas for the synthetic propane or gas start otherwise) * perhaps some shared small scale wind if space is available (for a more diverse onsite energy portfolio more resilient for extended grid outages)
I’ve long felt that manufactured homes are an easy win for renewables integration, electrification and efficiency, but ideally it’s done at the factory rather than a retrofit. The design can happen once and the install labor can be efficient. Initial cost may be a little higher, but a predictable mortgage is much easier to manage than variable fuel costs.
As an aside, I recall my utility bills being quite low in our first house, an old mobile home, due to the 900 sq. ft footprint. This really seems like low hanging fruit to me.
architect here… most people do not understand that you can’t just put up solar panels and call it a day.
homes, even manufactured homes, use a lot more power during certain hours of the day. its called “peak demand” in the industry and its generally between 7-9am when everyone is waking up, cooking breakfast, getting ready for work, etc… then again between 6-9 pm as everyone is getting home from work, watching tv, cooking dinner, etc…
solar panels on your roof simply cannot produce enough electricity to power all your appliances during these peak hours. what solar panels can do however, is produce a steady amount of power all day long.
the solution is energy storage. the easiest way to do this is batteries. however, batteries are expensive, large, heavy, and quite oftentimes dangerous and toxic. let’s ignore all of the other disadvantages to batteries and look at just the price.
a tesla Powerwall costs about $10k. there are some studies done that show a tesla Powerwall fully charged can support an average home for about 10 hours. there are also studies done that show a tesla powerwall being charged by solar panels takes about 6-10 hours.
so think about that for a second… if it takes 10hours to charge and a powerwall can power a home for 10 hours, that’s basically telling you taht you need 2 powerwall units. 1 is being charged for a day while the other is being used for that day.
so the cost to every manufactured home to do this would be the cost of solar panels (enough to be able to fully charge a powerwall in a day) and the cost of 2 powerwall batteries. know anyone living in a manufactured home that has over $30k lying around to do this?
and if you live in an area that doesn’t get much sun…… or if its cloudy or rainy….. or if its too cold… or if its too hot…. well you’re out of luck because the whole setup wont work in those conditions.
This could act as a pilot for the democratization of energy moving forward. By the way, you most definitely can provide for peak demand with solar. Too many people have fallen for the false narrative from the public utilities for years that it’s impractical, it nonsense.
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All sorts of things, but these come immediately to mind:
* rooftop PV solar, perhaps even solar tiles
* home batteries (especially when facing or electing for hourly pricing grid electrical rates or for power backup for grid outages )
* shared ground or pond sinks/sources for thermal heat pumps
* passive home inspired upgrades to insulate, seal, and end thermal bridging
* induction stovetops
* electric vehicles
* electric maintenance equipment (leaf blowers, snow blowers, lawn mowers)
More forward looking:
* shared thermal battery (such as a sand battery perhaps buried underground
* green hydrogen or synthetic propane derived from green hydrogen compressed for outdoor grills, as well as indoor or outdoor fireplaces (gas for the synthetic propane or gas start otherwise)
* perhaps some shared small scale wind if space is available (for a more diverse onsite energy portfolio more resilient for extended grid outages)
I’ve long felt that manufactured homes are an easy win for renewables integration, electrification and efficiency, but ideally it’s done at the factory rather than a retrofit. The design can happen once and the install labor can be efficient. Initial cost may be a little higher, but a predictable mortgage is much easier to manage than variable fuel costs.
As an aside, I recall my utility bills being quite low in our first house, an old mobile home, due to the 900 sq. ft footprint. This really seems like low hanging fruit to me.
architect here… most people do not understand that you can’t just put up solar panels and call it a day.
homes, even manufactured homes, use a lot more power during certain hours of the day. its called “peak demand” in the industry and its generally between 7-9am when everyone is waking up, cooking breakfast, getting ready for work, etc… then again between 6-9 pm as everyone is getting home from work, watching tv, cooking dinner, etc…
solar panels on your roof simply cannot produce enough electricity to power all your appliances during these peak hours. what solar panels can do however, is produce a steady amount of power all day long.
the solution is energy storage. the easiest way to do this is batteries. however, batteries are expensive, large, heavy, and quite oftentimes dangerous and toxic. let’s ignore all of the other disadvantages to batteries and look at just the price.
a tesla Powerwall costs about $10k. there are some studies done that show a tesla Powerwall fully charged can support an average home for about 10 hours. there are also studies done that show a tesla powerwall being charged by solar panels takes about 6-10 hours.
so think about that for a second… if it takes 10hours to charge and a powerwall can power a home for 10 hours, that’s basically telling you taht you need 2 powerwall units. 1 is being charged for a day while the other is being used for that day.
so the cost to every manufactured home to do this would be the cost of solar panels (enough to be able to fully charge a powerwall in a day) and the cost of 2 powerwall batteries. know anyone living in a manufactured home that has over $30k lying around to do this?
and if you live in an area that doesn’t get much sun…… or if its cloudy or rainy….. or if its too cold… or if its too hot…. well you’re out of luck because the whole setup wont work in those conditions.
This could act as a pilot for the democratization of energy moving forward. By the way, you most definitely can provide for peak demand with solar. Too many people have fallen for the false narrative from the public utilities for years that it’s impractical, it nonsense.
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