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GLEN BURNIE, MD:  Glen Square, a senior assisted-living complex in the heart of Glen Burnie, MD now have a solar water heating system that will offset a large portion of their natural gas water heating system.

The solar system is financed by Skyline Innovations, Inc., a Washington, DC based third party solar developer, who engaged Solar Energy Services of Millersville, MD to design and install the 42 panel solar thermal system.

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WASHINGTON, DC:  Earlier this week Solar Energy Services, Inc. completed the installation of a solar water heating system on Capital Manor Cooperative’s residence building on the 1400 block of W Street in Northwest Washington, DC.

SES was engaged by third party solar developer, Skyline Innovations, earlier this year to design and install the solar water heating system consisting of 48 evacuted tube solar arrays and three, 1,500 gallon solar storage tanks.

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REGISTRATION OPEN NOW! MDV-SEIA 2012 SOLAR CONFERENCE

Anybody who’s anybody in the Mid-Atlantic’s solar industry will be at the upcoming MDV-SEIA’S 6th Annual Solar Conference on November 27th & 28th 2012. Guest speaker include ex-CIA director James Woolsey as well as many other industry leaders.

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While still a relatively well kept secret among the general public, large scale solar water heating is popping up in more and more places. While this technology is relatively mature, the practical deployment is still in its infancy.

While we’ve seen lots of growth in recent years, what is holding back solar water heating? Three things actually: Awareness, Cheap natural gas, and Inertia.

We’re overcoming the awareness challenge slowly but surely. Every week there is another article in the trade press about a prison, dormitory, military barracks, restaurant or health care facility adopting this valuable technology. These systems are piquing the interest of facilities managers, engineers, and architects on the demand side and mechanical contractors and manufacturers on the supply side; helping to raise awareness among the traditional commercial water heating business community. This is particularly the case in markets like Washington DC, Maryland, North Carolina, Nevada, and California where solar water heating systems benefit from the existing solar PV incentive markets.

Cheap natural gas. I’ve written on this before, but it’s worth repeating. Today’s wholesale natural gas prices are close to a ten year low, and more than 75% below their most recent peak in July of 2008. Recent data indicates that prices are trending up again, but the current low price combined with economic uncertainty has facility managers and CFOs hesitating until they can see a faster payback on a solar water heating investment. While a 4 year payback may not seem enticing in today’s economy, the problem with waiting for the inevitable price increase of natural gas is that you forgo some of the best incentives existing today that will surely be lower or absent in the future. Remember, the solar fuel is free in the future, so increasing gas prices will only improve the economic return in the future.

Inertia is one of the most powerful social forces I know. It plays a huge role here. As engineers and architects continue to gain experience and confidence in specifying SWH systems, volume will continue to drive down costs in much the same way that we have seen with solar PV. The federal government has required the use of SWH on all of their new construction, if feasible. The number of contractors who are capable of installing and servicing these systems continues to increase, giving prospective system owners’ confidence that the systems will not be supported in the future.

Below are a few links highlighting some commercial systems recently commissioned in the U.S. Read on and learn how commonplace this simple technology is becoming.

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Solar veteran Roger Perry gives his two penneth about on-demand water heaters as viable solar water heating back-up candidates.

CAN I — USE AN ON-DEMAND HEATER AS SOLAR BACK-UP?

All solar water heaters in Maryland, D.C., and the Mid-Atlantic provide a family of four with around 75% of their annual hot water load. Most customers use their existing electric or gas sources for the remaining 25% backup (usually needed dead winter.) On-demand water heaters have a couple of advantages over tank-type heaters, but they are somewhat mitigated with a solar system.

The touted advantages of on-demand heaters:

Endless hot water– In a solar system with a properly sized back-up you will, pretty much, have endless hot water in the summer and plenty of hot water the rest of the time.

Large savings because of no stand-by losses– The claims of “up to 40% savings” are a bit exaggerated in all but the oldest water heaters. Our solar tanks are extremely well insulated and their stand-by losses are minimal. Also, in a solar water heater, the tank is an integral part of the system so the small stand-by losses are a fact of life.

Then there are the disadvantages with on-demand heaters:

On-demand heaters can get very confused when fed water that is already hot– This can result in temperature fluctuations as the heater tries to adjust or, in extreme cases, the heater shutting down on high limit.  One way we have gotten around this is to use a motorized 3-way valve that bypasses the on-demand heater.  This works well but adds to the complexity of an alredy complex piece of equipment, which leads me to…

They are very complex pieces of equipment– A standard water heater, gas or electric, has a bimetallic spring that moves to make an electrical connection when it cools, and moves to break that connection when it heats up. It doesn’t get a lot simpler than that. An on-demand heater must sense the flow of water (demand), measure the outgoing water temperature, and adjust the amount of gas to feed the burners so as to maintain a constant temperature at the tap. It also has to do this very quickly so as to not deliver water that is too cold when another tap is turned on or too hot when another tap is turned off. After a couple of years, scale begins to build up in the water valve; the unit needs to be descaled or it will stop working. For safety reasons, the default for most problems in any of these systems is for the unit to shut down.

All of this said, believe it or not, I do like these systems and would recommend one to anyone who could not get a solar system for some reason. I just don’t think they are worth the added headaches as a back-up for a solar water heating system.

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[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]AGING PUBLIC HOUSING BUILDINGS IN ANNAPOLIS GET NEW SOLAR PANELS

At one of Annapolis’ public housing buildings last week, new solar panels on the roof collected energy to heat hot water for more than two dozen apartments below.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]by Erin Cox:  The Baltimore Sun

At one of Annapolis’ public housing buildings last week, new solar panels on the roof collected energy to heat hot water for more than two dozen apartments below.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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Solar veteran Roger Perry discusses the pros and cons of One Tank Vs Two for Solar Back-up

All solar water heaters in Maryland, D.C. and the mid-atlantic provide a family of four with around 75% of their annual hot water load. Most customers use their existing electric or gas sources for the remaining 25% backup (usually needed dead winter). When installing a solar system one question that will come up is “Should I use my existing tank and have it fed by the solar system?” or “Should I remove my existing tank and use the electric back-up that comes in the solar tank?”. A couple of situations make this an easy decision;

1. An existing electric water heater with no room for another tank. This is especially satisfying and cost effective if the existing tank is leaking or on it’s last legs. It’s like getting $1500 off the cost of a solar system because that money would have needed to be spent anyway. In this case you would definitely chose a single tank system.
2. The other is if you have a gas water heater. While not as cut and dry as the example above, using the electric element would mean using a higher cost fuel for back-up (not so much with propane). Much of this extra cost would be mitigated because the single tank back-up would not run as much because it would be affected by solar input without running a faucet. You would need to run an electric circuit (30 amp, double pole breaker). This may be difficult or very easy depending on the breaker box location and available space in it. Most jurisdictions will also require a master electrician and a permit for this to be done. In this case, I think, most people would shy away from a single tank system unless there was just no room for another tank.

Let’s look at the pros and cons of each system;

SINGLE TANK PROS

• Smaller footprint
• Less heat loss
• Electric element can sense the solar output and not come on from stand-by losses
• Can go “all solar” just by turning off the element (essentially flipping a switch).

SINGLE TANK CONS

• Less back-up in cloudy weather (can be compensated with a larger solar tank which will have a larger back-up capacity).
• Less solar storage when the element is on (can be compensated for with a larger solar tank which will have more solar storage).

TWO TANK PROS

• Usually greater back-up capacity

TWO TANK CONS

• Greater heat loss
• Larger footprint

The secondary backup tank can’t sense the primary solar tank temperature unless a faucet is turned on, sending the water through the two-tank system.  This causes the second tank to turn on from stand-by losses when the primary solar tank is already plenty hot.

Going all solar requires operating valves as well as turning off back-up.

Personally I’m a fan of single tank systems. For the most part their two main drawbacks can be compensated for by installing a larger tank. An upgrade from a 80 to a 120 gallon solar tank is only a few hundred dollars. For a 50% increase in solar storage it is a small price to pay.

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[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]WASHINGTON, DC:  Skyline Innovations, a third party solar developer, engaged Solar Energy Services, Inc. to design and install a solar water heating system on an apartment building on MacArthur Blvd. in downtown Washington, DC.

The solar thermal system will include 20 thermal panels on the south facing roof of the building, as well as a 1,000 gallon solar storage tank.  The system will act as a pre-heat to the building’s existing gas water heater, reducing their utility costs by around 30% annually.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]COUNTY DETENTION CENTER TO GET SOLAR HEATING

The Frederick County Adult Detention Center is going green as work has begun on the installation of a solar power array that officials hope will save the county money in the long run.

The roof-mounted system will be used to heat water for the jail, which Lt. Keith Welty, commander of fiscal services, said is one of the counties largest users of hot water…[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]