Why Solar Hot Water & Space Heating?

OVERVIEW

In Colorado the sun shines 300 days a year! Colorado has some of the best solar exposure in the nation; our high altitude, clear skies and cooler temperatures combine to produce a great environment for solar energy production. Even cloudy days can provide plenty of Colorado solar power. Solar power is an efficient, economical and sustainable way to heat your home and provide hot water. Approximately 1.5 million homes and more than 250,000 commercial and industrial buildings in the United States use solar thermal technology to provide consistent, reliable hot water.

Benefit #1: Save money and reduce your electricity bills. Worried about the cost of a solar installation? Don’t be. Colorado provides a vast amount of solar rebates and incentives that will enable your Colorado solar system to pay for itself in a few short years. After your first month of solar power use, you will notice a remarkable decrease in your utility bill. Colorado utility rates have been climbing by a rate of 9% per year over the past ten years. A Colorado home solar system will enable you to break free from the grip of utility companies and generate your own electricity. When properly maintained, a solar thermal system can last 30 years or more. See out Rebates and tax Incentives page and our Pricing page.

Benefit #2: Get paid for what you generate and tax credits and rebates: through Feed-in-Tariffs, you get paid for the electricity you generate even if you use it. What you don't use, you can export to the local grid - and get paid for that too. There are many rebates available to Coloradoans that take specific energy efficiency and/or renewable energy measures. See out Rebates and tax Incentives page and our Pricing page.

Benefit #3: Increased Home Value Research by the has shown that a home with solar installed can sell twice as fast as a home. As a wise consumer you’re probably curious about what these improvements could do to your property taxes. Fortunately, most states offer property tax incentives that exclude the added value from the solar system in the property tax calculation.

Just like a kitchen renovation, investing in solar power can improve your home in a variety of ways. Subsequently, solar energy can increase the value of your home and make it more attractive if ever placed on the market. In fact, with current rebates, the value of your home may increase more than the actual cost of the solar system itself. If you ever decide to sell your home, the affordability offered by reduced electric payments will be taken into account by potential buyers.

And if that wasn’t enough, research completed by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy found that a home with Solar sells twice as fast as a house without solar installed. Fortunately, most states offer property tax incentives that exclude the solar system’s large added value to your home when it comes to tax season.

Benefit #4: Do Your part to to help Colorado achieve its Renewable Energy Standard. Colorado Goveneor Bill Ritter signed Renewable Energy Standard legislation on March 22, 2010 that requires large utilities to obtain 30% of their power from renewable sources by 2020. Putting Solar on your house or business helps Colorado to achieve their Renewawable Energy goals! See our Why Go Green page and our Why Sustainable Business page.

Benefit #5: Create jobs in Colorado’s New Energy Economy. Solar supports local business growth and allows every Coloradan to directly contribute to the New Energy Economy by producing their own clean electricity. Colorado is quickly becoming a leader in the “New Energy Economy” as the state pursues one of the most ambitious clean energy requirements in the country-- a 30% renewable electricity standard by 2020. Growth in the solar industry means jobs for electricians, builders, contractors, engineers, technicians and salespeople.

Benefit #6: Cleaner Air.  Colorado’s clean solar power drastically helps the environment. Currently, 90% of Colorado’s electricity is produced from burning fossil fuels, primarily coal or natural gas. This type of electricity generation produces a range of unavoidable harmful pollutants such as mercury, nitrogen monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, nitrous oxide, and carbon dioxide. The result is a host of negative impacts from asthma and acid rain to water contamination and global climate change. Solar energy is an effective pollution mitigation tool because it offsets dirtier fossil generation resources, such as natural gas and coal. By installing solar power on homes, businesses, and ranches across Colorado we avoid emitting millions of tons of the dangerous pollutants that are already clouding the state. Going solar cuts down Colorado's global warming pollution, improves public health, and significantly improves our quality of life. See our Why Go Green page and our Why Sustainable Business page.

Benefit #7: Reducing Global Warming Pollutants. Colorado’s clean solar power drastically helps the environment. Three byproducts of fossil-fuel based energy production - carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide - are also the three largest sources of global warming pollution. In Colorado, global warming will have many impacts, but perhaps most worrisome may be the loss of mountain snow pack. Rising temperatures will lead to less snow, which threatens our thriving ski industry and already constrained water resource during the summer months. In 2008, the Governor issued an Executive Order establishing a goal of achieving an 80% reduction in global warming pollution from 2005 levels by 2050. Increasing 1,000 MW of solar energy would help the state achieve this important goal. The emissions reductions from installing solar would be equivalent to shutting down all existing electricity production in Colorado for 8 months or a single coal fired power plants for 8 years. In total, the avoided emissions of CO2, methane and N2O would be equivalent to taking 669,730 cars off the road.

Installing 1,000 MW of solar would also prevent the emission of over 400 pounds of mercury per year helping to protect human health and making our lakes and fish safer. Nitrogen oxides (known collectively as NOx) and sulphur dioxide (SO2) are harmful pollutants that are produced in the process of fossil fuel combustion. NOx is also a key contributor to Colorado’s current ground level ozone problem, which increases the risk of serious chronic respiratory problems. In addition Installing 1,000 MW of solar would prevent the emission of over 75,000 tons of NOx and SO2. See our Why Go Green page and our Why Sustainable Business page.

Benefit #8: Reduce U.S. dependence on Foreign Oil. There is near-universal agreement that breaking the United States off of oil should be one of our nation’s top priorities. We face a choice between vulnerability and strength. So far we’ve made energy choices that have exposed us to unnecessary risks, but it’s time for that to change. As long as America is dependent on foreign oil, both our security and our economy are in jeopardy. Rather than sending a billion-dollar check to foreign nations every day, we should be spending that money on American energy solutions that put people to work here at home. It is time for Americans to meet its challenges head on, make a commitment to a stronger economy and a stronger nation, and commit – finally – to breaking the strangling grip of our oil addiction. Do your part by investing in Wind and Solar energy! See our Why Go Green page.

HOW DOES SOLAR THERMAL WORK?

On a sunny winter day the air inside a parked car will heat up despite the temperature outside. Solar thermal collectors or “panels” work the same way. Collectors are mounted on a south-facing roof or on the ground. Sealed tubes containing a heat transfer fluid pass through the solar collectors to absorb and trap the sun’s heat. The heated fluid then passes through a heat exchanger in a well-insulated water storage tank where it heats water for domestic use.

Solar thermal usually supplements rather than replaces existing hot water heaters, so the solar storage tank is connected to a conventional water heater or boiler to provide additional backup heat, as needed, on cloudy days or when large amounts of domestic hot water are in demand. A very large solar storage tank can be used without backup heater, but this approach is more expensive and can be less reliable ifthere are several consecutive cloudy days and heavy hot water demand.

There are two types of solar thermal systems most commonly installed in Colorado, both referred to as “flat-panel” collectors. One is a “closed loop” system using antifreeze and water as the heat transfer fluid. The other uses distilled water as the heat transfer fluid and a “drainback” storage tank and pump system to prevent the water from freezing on very cold days. Each of these has slightly different cost structures and maintenance requirements because of the different equipment involved.

Another type of solar thermal system uses evacuated tube collectors. A relatively new technology, these collectors perform better than flat plate collectors in cloudier or colder climates and can achieve higher water temperatures. Evacuated tube systems have higher up-front costs, but considering performance, the installed cost is close to that of flat-plate collectors.

DOMESTIC HOT WATER

Solar thermal can be used to heat domestic hot water (DHW) for bathing, dishwashing, clothes-washing, cleaning or any other domestic need. In Colorado, Solar thermal systems for DHW generally replace natural gas or propane water heaters. Hot water heating is one of the biggest energy uses in the home, so using sunlight to heat water can cut utility bills substantially. A well-sited 2 panel system (about 64 ft2 of surface area) with an 80-120 gallon storage tank can provide about 70-80% of average DHW needs for a family of four – about 100 gallons per day.

DOMESTIC SPACE HEATING

Solar thermal systems can provide heat as well as DHW, but this requires more panels and a larger storage tank. System size for both heating and DHW depends on factors such as home size, indoor temperature settings, plumbing requirements, and the amount of heat you want solar to provide. Solar heating requires additional plumbing equipment and labor costs and may not be cost effective unless the home has a summer-season use for heat, such as a pool. Most systems used for heating and DHW are sized to meet between 65-75% of the homes heating demand and 80% of DHW.

Most solar heating systems use plumbing in the floor (“radiant” heating) or baseboards (“hydronic” heating) to circulate hot water. Radiant and hydronic heating systems are quieter than typical forced air heating systems (no noisy furnace cycling); they heat the home more evenly with humidified air providing greater comfort and reduce airborne dust, drafts and indoor air movement. Because they are designed to meet only a portion of the heating demand, solar heating systems must interface withanother heating system, such as an existing forced air or hydronic baseboard system, which can be sized smaller to accommodate the reduced demands put on them. Source: Center for ReSource Conservation

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