Solar

This is one of our garages at the entrance on Lenox street. Notice the pitch of the roof:

It faces South and the pitch of the roof is at the angle recommended for optimal solar capture at Houston's latitude. All our garages and carports are designed with the roof at this pitch. Between them we could install between 400 and 500 square meters of solar panels; that's 4,500 to 5,000 square feet. The national energy lab (www.nrel.gov) estimates that we would generate 5.11 KWh per square meter per day (annual average). That will go a long way to meeting our total electricity consumption. But we could add more. If we used all available roof space above our units, as well as covering our 4th floor walk-way we could more than double our generating capacity. Prices of solar panels + installation have changed a lot over the last few years; at this point we're not sure how much we can afford to install, but the more the better.