The system was installed by a contractor in the Milwaukee metro area. He evaluated our project in 2003 and we contracted with him to install it in 2004. It uses 3 Radco hot water solar collectors that are connected to 120 gallons of storage capacity, including an 80 gallon preheat tank and a 40gal high-output gas hot water heater that brings our water temp up to the required temp for the bakery. A heat exchanger inside the 80 gal tank receives the heated non-toxic antifreeze that circulates through the collectors via a small 110v pump at the tank.

On average, the collectors preheat the water entering the building from 40 degrees to about 100 on an average sunny day. In the summer the 80gal tank will reach 150 degrees and in the winter it will reach 110±.

The system is calculated to produce 15.46 million BTu annually. The system cost over $6000 in 2004 and we received a rebate that covered over 1/2 of the cost.

It was particularly beneficial to us since we needed considerable capacity of hot water capacity as per Health Department code for the bakery.

At that time anticipated break even was 16 yrs but that was still during the cheap gas era. I suspect it may be closer to 10 years now and the system will last well over 20 years while maintaining 80% of its original efficiency. It also shades a portion of south side of the building in the summer, reducing building cooling costs.

Last edited by g.   Page last modified on March 09, 2006

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