Rural residents sing solar power praises

Monday, Sept. 25, 2000 | 9:38 a.m.

Lynn and Randy Dale live comfortably in their 4,200 square-foot home on the slopes of the Spring Mountains, where they can sit on their front porch and behold the panoramic view of the sprawling valley below.

Their rural residence -- often inspected by curious elk, deer, raccoons and other wild critters -- is filled with all the conveniences people have come to expect today, including a washer and dryer, refrigerators, televisions and computers.

About they only thing the couple don't have is an electric bill.

Neither do Carlos and Santa Gagliardo, who live in a 4,200-square-foot home just down the slope from the Dales.

The Gagliardos have the same appliances as their neighbors, but Carlos also has a workshop in his basement that is filled with power tools he uses in his woodworking hobby.

The Dales, the Gagliardos and about 100 others make their permanent residences 45 miles northwest of Las Vegas in the Cold Creek community. They are 12 miles beyond the point where the Nevada Power Co.'s lines end at the Southern Desert Correctional Center, west of U.S. Highway 95.

According to Randy Dale, Nevada Power Co. would charge home owners about $7 million to extend those lines to the 65 houses scattered around Cold Creek, where solar power has become a way of life.

While using the sun as a major energy source has not been widely accepted among the general public elsewhere in Nevada, folks in Cold Creek would be in the dark without it.

That's because they are "off the grid," which means they are not hooked up to the power company's lines, Cold Creek residents are not too concerned about what will happen to electric rates in the rest of Nevada when power companies are deregulated in the near future.

One businessman who sells solar power equipment noted that when the power company in San Diego was deregulated earlier this year rates tripled in 90 days, going from about 7 cents per kilowatt hour to 21 cents.

"Several businesses closed down. Bills for some (companies) were $10,000 to $13,000 a month when they used to be $2,500," said Gene Cattaneo, who began the Mr. Solar company in Las Vegas almost 25 years ago. "If it happened there, it can happen anywhere."

That's not a great concern for the Dales, who have lived in their solar-powered home six years, and the Gagliardos, who have lived here for three years.

The secret to their peace of mind is a solar energy system that is used in conjunction with propane. The gas costs each family about $500 a year. The electricity created by solar panels is free.

However, solar power systems are not cheap. They range from about $2,000 to $25,000, depending on how sophisticated the homeowner wants the equipment to be and how much power he wants.

Dale spent $6,000 and installed most of his system himself. Gagliardo spent $20,000 and had others install his. However, compared to a $7 million bill to hook up to Nevada Power Co., the cost to the two families was relatively cheap.

"Costwise, the system will pay for itself in 10 years," Dale said. "Then there will be no monthly bills."

There are 65 houses in Cold Creek, 40 of them occupied by families who live in them year-round and the others used on weekends or during vacations. Most of the houses use solar energy and propane, while a couple use a gas-powered generator to produce all of their electricity.

Propane is used for heating, cooking and hot water tanks. Some people have propane dryers and refrigerators. Everything else is powered by electricity produced by the sun.

Although it is possible to have central air conditioning on the solar powered system, no one has it because at the community's 6,700-foot elevation, temperatures rarely get above 85 degrees.

All the comforts

The late Ron Ruiden, a real estate developer, bought the land that is now Cold Creek and began selling half-acre lots in 1980. He gained the rights to a share of the river that runs underneath the community, put in two wells and ran waterlines to about 200 lots. (Residents have septic tanks for sewage.)

The Gagliardos bought two lots from Ruiden about 18 years ago, anticipating they would build a home in the community when they retired. Carlos, formerly a slot-machine technician, said it took him about four years to build his two-story cinder block house.

Dale, a builder by trade, has been working on his home for six years and still isn't finished. He's too busy building homes for others moving to Cold Creek.

"I've built seven homes here," he said. "I average about two a year."

All of the homes he builds have solar power systems. His own house has 48 solar panels on its roof to collect sunlight. The sun's energy goes from the panels to a bank of 32 six-volt batteries (the kind used on golf courts), where it is stored as direct current. An inverter changes the direct current to alternating current, which is used to run the house.

There is a gas-powered generator system for back-up electricity and to equalize the charges in the battery, which is important in order to extend the battery's life.

Cloudy days may result in a drop in the amount of electricity that is stored in the batteries, but there is enough power to go a week without sunlight.

"The worst it's ever been is a solid week of cloud cover," Dale said. Then it's just a matter of starting the generator to recharge the batteries.

People who move to the community love the solitude, the closeness to nature, the fresh air and the independence. They don't care much for the winds, which can reach 125 miles an hour.

"We've experimented with wind generators, but haven't found the right system yet," said Dale, who is a board member of the Cold Creek Homeowners Association, is on the volunteer fire department and is one of four emergency medical technicians in the area.

Conserving energy has become second nature to those who live on solar power. "The main thing is to not draw any major loads during non-sunlight hours," Dale said.

And to turn off the lights.

Gagliardo has an electrical system that allows him to isolate his workshop from the house's power. When he uses tools that require more power than usual, or when he is going to spend several hours in his shop, he cuts off the solar electric system to that part of the house and runs the shop on a generator.

"The generator will run six or seven hours before I have to refuel it," he said.

If it were economically feasible people here wouldn't mind being hooked into Nevada Power Co. because of the convenience and the subsequent increase in property values.

And it would be easier to log on to the Internet.

There is no hard-line phone system in Cold Creek, so people use cell phones for telephone calls and for their computers. Logging on with a cell phone takes longer, data moves slower and users are frequently kicked off the line.

Gagliardo said when he bought his property he did so knowing there probably would never be any electricity from the power company.

"We planned around that," he said. "A lot of people get discouraged when they come up here to look at property. You've got to have a little pioneering spirit."

Economic sense

Cattaneo said it makes economic sense for people such as those in Cold Creek to spend large sums of money on solar energy, but not for people who live in areas where electricity is readily available.

He discourages customers from spending thousands of dollars to convert to solar power, if they are doing it to save money. You don't save anything when you spend $15,000 on a system to make $10 worth of electricity, he said.

"The trick is to get everything off the electrical system that is possible and put it on gas or propane," he said. "Lights, computers, televisions, kitchen appliances -- you can run all that on less than $10 a month. You can run everything you're running in your house now if you have the major stuff on gas."

Cattaneo sells a lot of solar-powered heaters for pools and hot water tanks and sold a lot of the equipment used in Cold Creek. He said the main reason for switching to solar power, at least until electric rates become so high people are forced to change, is to help the environment and health considerations.

Solar energy does not pollute, and so the more solar is used, the less carbon dioxide is in the air, which is healthier for everyone.

Cattaneo said saving energy, and money spent on energy, should begin with intelligent construction of homes -- from the material that is used to the direction they face when built.

"We need to construct more efficient dwellings," he said.

Ranen Ghatak, owner of United Solar Energy Inc. in Henderson, said Nevada is near the bottom of the states when it comes to solar energy use and development. The most aggressive are California, Arizona and Florida.

Ghatak, who also has installed systems in Cold Creek, said he sells more solar hot water heaters out of state than he does in Nevada. He is about to leave on a business trip to Europe and then to India, where he may build a plant to manufacture solar equipment.

"India is getting into solar power in a big way," said Ghatak, who invented a solar-powered stove and has many patents on a variety of solar equipment.

Ghatak said he believes Nevada could take lessons from Israel, where more than 50 percent of its power comes from solar energy.

"The government here doesn't seem too interested in solar power," he said.

He said the state and federal governments need to push the development of solar energy and to educate the public.

"There are still a lot of people who don't understand how solar energy works," he said.

Robert Boehm, director of UNLV's Center for Energy Research, says until the cost of solar systems goes down dramatically or the cost of electricity goes up dramatically, solar power probably will not be widely used in Nevada.

He said utility customers in Sacramento, Calif., are eager for solar power.

"The Sacramento Municipal Utility District has put a tremendous amount of solar power in since deciding to close down its nuclear plant," Boehm said. "People pay a little more for power from solar but there is a waiting list of people wanting to get on. People have jumped on the bandwagon."

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