by jdunkley | Nov 19, 2013
The idea of heating a space with the sun is very attractive and elegant, though not trivial to implement cost effectively in Northern coastal climates. The challenge is that both daily and seasonally, the load and source don’t coincide. When we need space heat,...
by jdunkley | Jun 12, 2012
This extended care hospital facility uses a significant amount of hot water and was due for a new hot water system to replace the failing one. The solar hot water preheat system will provide nearly 50% of the load annually to the building. A drainback, preheat...
by jdunkley | Sep 27, 2011
In British Columbia, nothing says local energy like a combined biomass gasification and solar thermal system to supply space heat and domestic hot water. During the low solar gain, high heat requirement months, the biomass system provides the vast majority of the...
by jdunkley | Sep 27, 2011
In this application, fuel oil was burned in a low efficiency boiler for space heat and, year round, for domestic hot water. Thermal efficiencies on aging boilers of this type can be as little as 50-60% meaning half the internal energy in the fuel oil is not...
by jdunkley | Sep 6, 2011
Clean & Green Something I hear from time to time is that solar is “ugly”. It doesn’t have to be. By paying attention to detail and planning the installation to be as unobtrusive as possible, it can not only work well for decades and displace...
