Bollar House

551 E Dove Rd
Southlake, TX 76092

Tour Hours: 10am - 4pm

map
Please park in the Liberty Park at Sheltonwood parking lot. Cross Dove Rd and proceed up the Private Drive. Our home is 400 feet up on the right. If you’re unable to walk, you’re welcome to drive in, but we have limited parking and are concerned about people being boxed in.

17kW of PV panels provide 90% of our electric usage (including powering the Tesla Model S) and have reduced our electric bill to about $40 a month.

Our house incorporates several energy-saving systems and we have installed almost all of them ourselves, so we can get into technical conversations about the decisions we made and the challenges we faced as we were evaluating and prioritizing systems.

Renewable energy features

Solar PV

kW 17
Installation Date:  November 2013
Installer:  Self

Equipment

68 Enphase M215 inverters / Renesola 250W monocrystalline panels

Retail Electric Provider

Tri-County Electric Cooperative

Energy Monitoring

Powerhouse Dynamics SiteSage

Green features:

  • Tesla Model S
  • Evapotranspiration-driven irrigation system to reduce landscape water use
  • LED lighting throughout the house

Host Comments

Our house incorporates several energy-saving systems and we have installed almost all of them ourselves, so we can get into technical conversations about the decisions we made and the challenges we faced as we were evaluating and prioritizing systems. It’s important to us to do our part to help improve Metroplex air quality and to reduce our use of dwindling water resources, so we’ve chosen our systems with that in mind.

The key systems on display: A 17kW photovoltaic system on our west and south-facing roofs. This system provides about 90% of our electric usage (including powering our electric vehicle) and has reduced our electric bill to about $40 a month.

Circuit-level whole-house energy monitoring. This system monitors the electricity use on each circuit and is able to identify appliances needing repair, as well as vampire electrical draws and most used circuits. Here are links to real-time and historic site data:

http://pvoutput.org/intraday.jsp?id=26327&sid=24036
https://sitesage.net/user/oilma4mvq59/2117
https://enlighten.enphaseenergy.com/pv/public_systems/kSxp264170

Our Tesla Model S will be on display and we’re happy to talk about life with an EV, as well as the road trips we’ve taken with it.

Irrigation scheduled in real-time based on evapotranspiration models – our system decides exactly how much to water based on estimates of how much moisture has been taken from the soil through solar radiation, wind & humidity. This system cut our Summer water bill in half! We designed this system ourselves, but there are commercial versions that accomplish similar results.

LED Lighting – it’s not very sexy, but LED lighting had a large impact on our overall electric bill, as well as the energy used for air conditioning, so it was an easy, fairly inexpensive first step for us.

We’re also prepared to talk about the solar array at Carroll ISD Middle School, just down the road. The school has the largest Rooftop Solar System in Texas, costing $2.5 million and with 2400 panels rated at 450 kW on 43,000 Sq. Ft. of coverage in 7 different rooftop areas.