Annapolis Restaurant Harry Browne’s Installs Solar Water Heater
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Slowly but surely the skyline on Annapolisâ State Circle is starting to change. First, the Governorâs Mansion in 2009 and just this month, the ever-popular Harry Browneâs Restaurant (http://www.harrybrownes.com) has joined the ranks of businesses jumping on the solar bandwagon. Not only an enthusiastic and self-professed carbon footprint reducer, Rusty Romo, Harry Browneâs owner since 1979, is a savvy businessman, âAlthough I have a vested interest in reducing my carbon footprint, thereâs no question that the solid Return on Investment was the final straw in deciding to install a solar water heater.â This viewpoint extends throughout Rustyâs business dealings, particular with regards to his restaurantâs waste production. Prior to January of 2012, annual trash pick up was costing the restaurant around $13,000 per year. That cost has now been reduced to $4000 due to Rustyâs implementation of two recycling solutions: 1) Veterans Composting visits several times per week to pick up all of the restaurantâs food waste turning it into compost for farmers, gardeners and landscapers. 2) A Cardboard baler compresses all of the restaurantâs cardboard, hugely reducing the bulk for taking to a dumpster storage facility where it is pulled and weighed. Harry Browneâs averages at least two tons every twenty eight days. Depending on the market cost, cardboard reclamation pays him from $30 – $100 per ton. Restaurants have a large hot water load, and Harry Browneâs is no exception. The 250-seat restaurant easily consumes the 160 gallons of hot water per day provided by the solar water heating system installed by Millersville based Solar Energy Services, Inc. (solarsaves.net) The system includes two, 30-tube solar collectors, (approved by the Historic Commission), mounted on a flat roof in the back of the restaurant. These panels are joined, via a copper pipe run and pump control unit to two, 80g stone-lined water tanks in the basement. The solar system acts as a pre-heat to Harry Browneâs conventional gas system, offsetting around 50% of his annual hot water load.
ABOUT SOLAR WATER HEATERS and SES, Inc.
Solar water heaters are a time-tested, mature technology that are deployed every day by Solar Energy Services, Inc. (SES) of Millersville (solarsaves.net). In addition to restaurants, apartment buildings, universities, carwashes, detention centers and other government and institutional buildings continue to expand SESâs customer list. Roger Perry, a 35-year solar veteran and partner at Solar Energy Services, Inc., is still servicing solar water heating systems that he installed during the early eighties. Roger notes that âGiven current financial incentives, solar water heaters are a no-brainer for any business in MD and DC that has a daily hot water load.â
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