Afton Mountain Bed and Breakfast

Contact information

System details

Who we are

Afton Mountain Bed & Breakfast is a two-story, Victorian Era (1848) bed and breakfast with five guest rooms. Owned and operated by the husband and wife team of Dan and Orquida Ingraham since July 2002, it’s located in the heart of Central Virginia’s wine and craft brewery country. We serve guests from all over the country and the world, focusing on a quiet, comfortable setting where our guests can experience the flavors, history and beauty that our area has to offer.

Why we went solar

We had our solar array installed to reduce our carbon footprint and do our small part to help lessen the impact of greenhouse gasses on the planet. We also wanted to try to set an example for other innkeepers and small business owners in our area who might be on the fence about making this kind of investment (one of our innkeeping neighbors actually installed a solar array on their house about 2 years after we did). Finally, we knew that many of our guests would be curious about our solar panels, the installation process, cost, and how they have impacted our bottom line. Hopefully seeing our system up-close and hearing our story will help convince a few of them to invest in a system of their own.

Benefits of going solar

Reducing our negative impact on the environment is clearly the main benefit of installing our system. But there are certainly others: a significantly reduced electric bill; a fairly large tax credit; and in our case, a REAP grant from the USDA to help offset some of the cost. We’re very happy with our decision and strongly encourage others to consider solar for their homes and businesses.