Solar Hot Water Installation, 404 South Main Street, Brattleboro, Fall 2009

When:

October/November 2009

Where:

Ten unit multi-family building on South Main Street in Brattleboro

What:

Installation of four Stiebel Eltron flat panel collectors mounted on the south facing roof slope to provide energy input to the domestic hot water system for 5 of the 10 units.

Detail:

This project was done with the help of Co-Op Power in the form of a "barn-raising" utilizing a neighbor to neighbor labor force.  Our staff volunteered on other installations to gain insight, skills and knowledge.  Members of Co-Op Power then returned the favor by volunteering as we installed our system.  For more information on becoming involved in this type of solar installation, please contact Brattleboro Co-Op Power at 140 Elliot St., Box #1, Brattleboro, VT, 05301 or by calling Tom at 802-464-3969

The domestic hot water for the building is held in two storage tanks, each serving 5 units.  One tank is heated exclusively via the oil boiler.  The other tank is preheated by the solar energy and in the event that the water temperature drops below our minimum limit the oil boiler will compensate with added btus.

Our system design allows us to monitor, side by side, the running time of the pumps that inject oil heated hot water.  This gives us the ability to determine how much less oil is used in the solar hot water system.  Some estimates suggest a payback in as little as 5 years.

Funding:

The State of Vermont gives a credit based on the system output (size).  For this installation we recieived a $6,300 refund.  The Federal government offered a tax credit for the renewable energy system installation of $5,205.  The combined return was $11,505.  Through utilizing the neighor to neighbor installation to keep costs down we are able to use the state and federal subsidies to cover 68.27% of the cost.

Data: CHECK BACK SOON!  Once we have enough data from our meters to start charting it usefully we will post it here.