We’re excited to share a new Humans of Uprise story with you today! Meet Sarah Hansen and Cade Sitton, who obtained a 8.4 kilowatt solar system for their Ward 6 rowhouse from Uprise earlier this year. Both are active duty military, but even if they have to move away from Washington DC in a few years, they discovered the solar ROI (return on investment) in the District is so good it still made sense to install panels.
DC Transplants Thanks To The Navy
Cade and Sarah are both part of the nuclear program as lieutenants in the Navy. Cade joined to help pay off his student loans after college, and was also interested because his grandfather was a submariner during the Cold War. And Sarah was a physics major in college and was looking for a way to challenge herself after graduation. They met through the military; Cade is originally from Houston and Sarah is originally from Maine.
As part of the nuclear program, Sarah says, “you’re operating a nuclear reactor at sea.” Cade adds, “You’re using a hot rock to make steam in the most simple terms.” During their seven and a half year careers thus far, they’ve been surface warfare officers on their first tours, completed six months of academic training in Charleston and another six months of training on a student reactor, and completed tours on an aircraft carrier. They’re both on their shore tours right now, and have been in DC for a year. Cade is stationed at the Pentagon, while Sarah is stationed in Baltimore.
Can’t Power Your Home With A Nuclear Reactor? Go Solar
When the couple were moving to DC, their realtor mentioned the city has good solar policies, which piqued their interest. They started contacting solar companies for quotes around a month or two after moving into their home.
“We can’t exactly have a nuclear reactor attached to our house, but solar is a good alternative as well,” Sarah says. “We both like the more green aspect of it, too.”
However, their home needed a new roof first, so Uprise connected the couple with our Director of Roofing, TJ.
“What really sold the deal to me was the roofer [Uprise] recommended. TJ blew me away, just with the level of detail he had. We had a few other roofers come out for quotes and he was just so much more competent than any other roofer I had worked with,” Sarah says. “I was like, ‘All right, Uprise is working with somebody like him, I want to work with Uprise.’ I’ve never been so excited about a roof before, but our roof looked amazing after his work was done.”
“I think the biggest thing is what she mentioned,” Cade says. “It’s not just who Uprise is, it’s who they choose to work with. Obviously they had to punch some holes in the wall to do the electrical cables and the drywall guy y’all sent over was incredible.”
“We had previously done some drywall work ourselves and the work he did made our stuff look like a kindergartener,” Sarah says. “He was like Mozart out there fixing it. He was incredible.”
They also appreciated Uprise’s professionalism, knowledge, and personal touch, as well as the team’s responsiveness to emails and phone calls.
“It was also installed shockingly quick,” Cade says. “I would say to any prospective buyers: [Uprise] took care of the entire process, like permitting. It was very seamless, very smooth.”
“We had neighbors be like, ‘Oh, you just got solar,’ and I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, let me tell you about Uprise,’” Sarah says. “I really appreciate the work your guys’ company did. Honestly your company treated us really, really well.”
(If your neighbors are curious about solar too, you can earn a $300 referral bonus if one of them goes solar!)
Fantastic Solar ROI in DC
Once the couple received permission to operate in early February, they noticed the difference in their power bill right away. Cade says, “I think the first bill was like $15.”
“Before we did solar — I know [Uprise] does [their] own calculations, but I’m a math spreadsheet person, so I also did my own calculations,” Sarah says. “I have a tracker where I track all of the savings and when our estimated time to ROI is. I absolutely love that part of it. I’m a math nerd, so it’s fun. It just makes sense in DC, with the SRECs. We could potentially be moving in another three years and even then we’re still gonna make a return on our investment.”
“One of our SRECs just sold today for like $410, which is significantly more than our monthly payment on the loan,” Cade says. “So even without the actual energy bill savings, it just made sense.”
DC Highlight: So Much To Explore
Since the military chooses where to station its personnel, Sarah and Cade didn’t get to pick DC. But the District was at the top of their list. And so far, they’ve really enjoyed the city.
“It’s our first job where we actually have free time,” Sarah says, “so we really wanted to go to an area that was fun. We’re young, we have the time to go explore. Our favorite part is just trying every restaurant around here. We love it.”
They live within walking distance of H Street and Capitol Hill, so there are plenty of fantastic restaurants nearby. They’ve become DC United season ticket holders, and they’re fans of the public transportation options.
“I did a lot of living in the south and then more agricultural areas in eastern Washington where public transport doesn’t exist, so it’s very nice just hopping on the Metro and getting wherever you need to go,” Cade says.
And of course they love access to so many free museums. “I think we’ve been to the National Portrait Gallery like six times,” Cade says. “Free museums are very nice. Makes it easy when you have family visiting and go do tourist stuff, not having to pay money.”
“We go to other cities when we’re traveling and we’re like, ‘We have to pay to go to the museum? What?’” Sarah says.
They also appreciate the feel of the District. “DC’s obviously a very important city on the national stage, but depending on where you are in the city it feels very small town-ish, so it’s really nice,” Cade says.
Another fun thing they’ve been able to do is adopt two cats, Jyn and Gandalf, who are a year old.
Go Green With A Fast Solar ROI
If you’re intrigued by DC’s fantastic solar ROI time or would like to benefit from clean energy inexpensively through Uprise’s no-cost solar program, we’d be happy to get you started. And if you need roof repairs or a roof replacement before going solar, TJ can help you out. Call us at (202) 750-5718 or fill out our form online to launch your solar journey.
And be sure to check out our Humans of Uprise page to read more stories of neighbors going solar in DC!