‘Going Around Your Elbow to Get to Your Thumb’ in Solar Water Heaters
Every once in a while someone will ask me if it makes sense to collect solar energy with photovoltaic panels and then use that electricity to heat water. The answer is a rather emphatic NO. The reason is very simple. Photovoltaic (PV) systems have efficiencies in the 10-15% range and solar thermal systems have efficiencies […]
How Do You Shove a 400lb…
…heat exchanger into a 2500 gallon solar hot water storage tank? Ve-e-e-r-r-y carefully. Take a look-see as me and the crew attempt to do so without losing any fingers or toes. Click the image below to access the video of today’s action! Dr. Ben
Making Great Progress!!!
We’re moving right along on our Fluid Handling System for the solar hot water system at the Warrior Transition Unit. Sam is measuring for the collector pump pipe penetration through the cavity in the first picture below. The second photo shows the “almost complete” sheet metal jacket including the door over the front cavity. This […]
Warrior Transition Unit Tank Arrives!
Another special delivery! The 2500 gallon tank for our solar hot water system in Bethesda arrived today. The red face is the working end with the heat exchanger collar in place. The wood skids are sitting on top of four clamp-on wheels that Sam and I use to move the tank around and get underneath […]
Another Fluid Handling System is in the works for the Walter Reed Health Care System!
I love getting special deliveries. Today the mailman dropped of two heat exchanger collars. As you can see in the picture below, they couldn’t quite fit into a standard envelope. And yes, some additional postage was necessary. The next step is to weld one of those collars into a 2500 gallon cylindrical tank. This will […]
Fluid Handling System Delivers Greater Value!
I just got off the phone with a local solar thermal installer. I had quoted him a price on our Fluid Handling System yesterday but he said he wanted to shop around and get some more quotes from other tank suppliers. He just told me my offer was $10k lower than the competition. (I had […]
The little old lady in the mountains of Virginia
I got a phone call one day from an elderly lady in the Blacksburg area of Virginia. She got my phone number off the company sticker on her solar tank. When I answered the phone, she introduced herself, said she was 80 years old and had one of my solar hot water systems, and it […]
“How durable is solar equipment?” – Some Testimonials
Over the years, customers from all over the country have called or emailed me for a replacement solar hot water system part, whether a pump, or control, or corrosion inhibitor for the tank. The following email is from one such person in Massachusetts. I got a chuckle from the comment at the end… “Ben, In […]
“Solar energy is free, right?”
“Solar energy is free, right?” Update 12-31-14 Yes and no. Sunlight is free, unless your neighbor builds a 40 ft building next to your solar system, but that’s another story (see history of solar article). Yes, sunlight is free, but the equipment to capture and distribute it is not. That means solar is basically a […]
“I want 100% solar!”
“I want 100% solar!” Update 12-31-14 I frequently get asked if a person can get 100% of their heating and hot water from solar. I always answer with a story. Let’s say you need 500,000Btu (500kBtu) on Sunday for heating and hot water in the dead of the winter. So, we size a solar system […]