Editing 2009-042

From: SHANE SUTHERLAND <SHANES@farnell.ns.ca> Date: 2009-10-29 (Thu) 13:14:32 ADT Subject: Solar Hot Water I am on your e-mail list and I am the new treasurer of the Lawrencetown Community Center. We have had the NS Power/Clean NS - Cleaner, Greener, Brighter program to install CFL and LED bulbs. We have bought new Energy Star fridges and freezer. Quotes are being prepared for new doors. Next project, if financially feasible - ask Solar NS about solar hot water/heat. LCC presently has a propane fired hot water tank. Since the Community Center is used on an irregular basis, Clean NS suggested that propane has a high standing heat loss and electric would be better. Does Solar NS know of any grant programs, so that we could switch to Solar with electric back-up? We do have some money set aside, but certainly are looking for some grant money to help. Since the building is mostly empty on week days, my thought is for a system that can switch excess hot fluid to a radiator to add extra heat to the building. If anyone lives in our area, I have read about solar hot air panels and the low cost and high heat output, perhaps they could look at the building and make a suggestion. We are located on Highway 207 on the way to Lawrencetown Beach. Great location, close to the city with high visibility to promote solar projects. If this goes forward, we would be pleased to be added to your tour program and we offer very low rental rates for meetings or your solar courses. How's that for a sales pitch... Shane Sutherland WAYNE RESPONSE Hello Shane, I am on the Board of Directors of Solar Nova Scotia. We received your enquiry about solar water heating. I have done numerous assessments of buildings for solar heating potential, through my work with the Solar Gain Project (www.solargain.ca). I have seen your community centre many times on my way to Seaforth and Lawrencetown, though I have never been inside. I agree with you that if a solar energy collection system were installed there, it would have good visibility for public education purposes. I would be glad to talk with you about the possibilities for solar water heating and space heating, technical aspects, costs, grants, etc. My contact information is in my signature. At a first glance, I would point out that standing losses from propane could be reduced quite simply, because you could switch the equipment from a propane-heated water tank to a propane-fired on-demand tankless water heater, which would eliminate standing losses because the on-demand heater only comes on when needed. In the short term this might be your simplest solution to eliminate that loss. In fact, I'm not sure why the Clean Nova Scotia assessors would suggest simply switching to an electric hot water tank, because an electric hot water tank has about as much standing loss as a propane hot water tank (unless you plan to turn off the switch on the electric one when the building is empty). In my understanding, the most effective way to reduce standing losses is to stop heating water when it's not needed (irrespective of what fuel is used), in other words, to use an on-demand, tankless water heater. These are now available in both electric and propane versions, and since you are already set up for propane, I don't see why you wouldn't just switch to an on-demand propane water heater, instead of electric. An example of a tankless propane-fired water heater is Paloma, at: http://www.palomatankless.com/products/74/tankless_74.html In Europe and North America, most often these are run on natural gas where it's available, but I know folks that have bought them for propane to use in Nova Scotia. Having said that, I would love to help you consider solar energy as well :) (For example, as a pre-heater for your new on-demand propane water heater, and as a supplementary heater to keep the building above freezing when it's not in use - solar thermal can be applied to those loads pretty effectively.) Feel free to contact me if you want to discuss this more. Regards, Wayne Groszko, Ph.D. Renewable Energy Advisor email: wayne@communityenergynb.ca phone: 902 429 0787

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