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Free Hot Water Blog
Archive for August, 2010
Is Solar Hot Water the Answer to Saving Money or Climate Change? Does it Matter?
Monday, August 30th, 2010 by Solar Fred
 (Photo: Flickr/net_efekt) There’s a great deal of debate in the United States about whether climate change is a threat to life as we know it or hoax by some kind of fantastic scientific conspiracy.
I’m not going to debate climate change on this blog. If you want to debate climate change, then do it with the experts at the CIA, the Union of Concerned Scientists, and the consensus of all of the major National Science Academies of the World, including China, India, and Russia.
Suggesting that all of these entities are working together to invent some kind of international fraud is a bit far fetched, but okay, say they’re all wrong.
In terms of solar hot water for major hot water consumers like hotels, apartment buildings, and laundry services, it doesn’t matter. Because while you may not care about climate change, you do care about saving lots of money.
For example, last week, we showed just one case study of how a medium sized California apartment building could save $16,000 a year by switching to a solar thermal system. (At a net cost of about $40,000 after all of incentives, the payback time is 3 years!)
Perhaps that’s hard to believe, but I’ve double checked these numbers with our Free Hot Water engineers, and they stand by those numbers for the given example.
My point is that as a landlord, hotel owner, or fitness center operator, you may have your doubts about global warming, but you at least have to believe in saving money.
Still skeptical about the benefits of solar water heating? Then please contact us. As we did in the case study, we’ll show you the numbers for your business and explain how we got those numbers. Worse case, you lose an hour and learn about solar hot water.
Then, even if you don’t believe in climate change, you can still help the planet by believing in going solar.
Tags: climate change/global warming, solar hot water case studies, solar hot water for apartments
Posted in Solar Hot Water for Apartment Buildings, Solar Hot Water Value | 1 Comment »
John Stewart and the Daily Show and Energy Independence. 8 Presidents had a dream… and blew it.
Wednesday, August 25th, 2010 by Solar Fred
As some our regular readers know, Free Hot Water is part of a coalition of solar companies that are trying to get solar hot water back on the White House, as symbol of energy Independence. Sadly, as John Stewart brilliantly shows, President Obama is not the first president to suggest that America be energy independent by a certain date.
Some people think that it was only Jimmy Carter who attempted to get America off the oil addiction, but In fact, every president since Nixon has called for energy independence. That’s right. Nixon. Don’t believe me? Just watch:
Tags: energy independence, solar on the white house
Posted in Solar Hot Water, Solar Hot Water News | 1 Comment »
Case Study: California Apartment Complex with Solar Hot Water
Sunday, August 22nd, 2010 by Solar Fred
Owners of California apartment buildings are one of the businesses that will benefit most from going with a solar hot water system.
Traditionally in California (and many states), apartment building landlords include hot water with every rental lease. Rather than individual hot water heaters, a central water heater (typically powered by gas) provides hot water to all residential units and onsite laundry facilities.
Consequently, with every bath, shower, dish washing, or load of laundry, the landlord is spending money to heat the hot water for the building’s residents. Installing a solar hot water system is a way to save 80% of that solar hot water cost.
Let’s take an example of an apartment or condo complex with about 120 units and 160 residents. While this is a real life example, please remember that every apartment building is unique with different requirements and water usage. For each unit the calculation is as follows: 20 gallons per person per-day for the first person, 15 gallons per-day for the second, and 10 gallons per-day for each person thereafter. Also included in the calculation are the 12 front-load energy saving washers to a total hot water consumption of 3,000 gal/day
So, even if you own another 160 resident building in California, your costs may be more or less than the following example.
Solar Hot Water Cost and Savings Example for a California Apartment Building with 160 Residents
| Utility |
PG&E |
| Min.Daily Demand @ 80% BTU |
1,875,150 |
| Est. Water Storage Requirements |
3,000 Gallons |
| # of Free Hot Water 7000 collectors: |
66 panels |
| Roof area required: |
3,500 sq. ft |
| Est. gas bill for hot water before solar: |
$16,000/year |
| Est. Cost before rebate, incl. engineering |
$180,000 |
| Estimated California Rebate: |
$ -86,000 |
| Estimated 30% Federal Tax Credit: |
$ -54,000* |
| Estimated Net System Cost: |
$40,000 |
| Estimated Payback time: |
About 3 yrs! |
| CO2 Saved from the environment over 25 years: |
3 Metric Tons |
| * Marcs 5 yr accelerated depreciation may be available and is not included in the ROI calculations. Please consult with your tax attorney as for your eligibility. |
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Once again, it should be noted that every apartment building is different. The number of units, number of residents, type of washers, type of dish washers, hot water tanks, engineering, roof space and many other factors will affect individual costs.
Also, these figures are rounded and based on the expected PG&E rebate. However, as of August 2010, the rebate regulations are still being finalized by The California Public Utility Commissions (CPUC) may alter these numbers.
According to sources, the CPUC should finalize the regulations by some time in September. Consequently, now is the time to get your solar quote and start the design and engineering to get reserved on the first tier of California rebates. Rebate amounts will decrease as the number of installations rise, so early adopters will get the most generous part of the subsidies.
In addition to California, there are other states that have very generous rebates right now. Contact us at info@freehotwater.com to get the latest information of your state.
Finally, remember that there’s no cost to getting a customized quote for your apartment building or other business. Worse come to worse, you’ll spend a little time getting educated about solar hot water. Best case, you’ll save a lot of money going solar.
When designing a large scale system, we have to consider for microclimate and local radiation as well as water demand, pick hours and water consumption patterns.
Below is a standard report that Free Hot Water generates for each project, verifying the parameters and assumptions taken in the design process.
Free Hot Water Engineering Report-Apartment Case Study.
If you have any questions about the above, please contact us.
Tags: solar hot water for apartments, solar hot water incentives
Posted in Solar Hot Water for Apartment Buildings, Solar Thermal Economics | 2 Comments »
Why Solar Water Heating Makes Sense for California Sports Fitness Centers
Wednesday, August 18th, 2010 by Solar Fred
 Photo: Flickr/HavenHolidays California residents not only have a reputation for being green, but they also have a reputation for staying fit.
Large health club chains have hundreds of locations, with members taking showers, soaking in hot tubs, and swimming laps in pools. Then there’s washing all of those towels. …every day. Of course, all of these activities have one thing in common: hot water. Lots of hot water.
The case for installing solar hot water at a fitness center is very simple:
- The monthly water heating bill alone for a single California fitness center can be $4,000 a month–or more. The amount will vary with every location by its members, showers, pools, etc, but the utility cost will always be significant due to constant hot water needs.
- Natural gas prices are only going to rise over the next few decades. Thus, whatever your cost is now, it’s only going to go up. If you plan to be in business at the same location for the next decade or two, read on.
- Fitness centers are typically large warehouse-like buildings with flat roofs and minimal to no shading. Perfect for installing solar collectors on empty roofs that have no other use.
- When a solar hot water system is sized and engineered correctly, 80% of a sports center’s annual gas water heating costs can be eliminated. No joke.
- Between California’s new rebate, the Federal Government’s 30% solar investment tax credit, and other tax considerations, the payback period for a system can be under 5 years.
- Consequently, after 5 years? 80% of the fitness center’s water heating costs are saved.
- Did I mention the green PR benefits, saving tons of carbon emissions?
I know there are going to be skeptics out there since this blog post is written on a solar hot water site, but Free Hot Water is an engineering company first and foremost. We not only design our own solar collectors, but pride ourselves in being accurate with our designs and estimates.
If you own or manage a sports fitness center, all we can say is contact us and get a free estimate. We’ll show you all of the numbers and include all of the rebates and tax incentives. Then you can decide if it makes sense. In the worst case, you lose a few hours and get educated about solar hot water. In the best case, …you save a lot of money over the next 25 years and help the environment.
Thanks.
Tags: Solar hot water for Fitness Centers
Posted in Solar Rebates, Solar Tax Incentives, Solar Thermal Economics | No Comments »
Solar Hot Water is a Fracking-free Alternative to Gas Heaters
Thursday, August 5th, 2010 by Solar Fred
 A former Pennsylvania Farm - Frack this. (Photo: Flickr/Arimoore) There’s no doubt that if your heating water with electricity or oil, then installing solar hot water makes economic sense, especially with all of the state and federal incentives.
But there’s also a very good environmental reason for choosing solar over gas hot water, and it’s called Hydraulic Fracturing or “Fracking.”
“Fracking” is a new method developed by natural gas companies to pound out the natural gas buried in underground shale. The gas companies buy formerly pristine farm land in states like Pennsylvania and instead of planting crops, they pump a mysterious “fracking” fluid into the ground shale that frees the gas from the rocks.
The problem? Actually, there are several. For one, nobody knows what’s in this fracking fluid, since gas companies say that this fluid is “proprietary.” Meanwhile, the fracking fluid has been known to contaminate underground watershed, potentially poisoning the water supply of thousands of people.
As much as I’d love to be making this up, there are numerous reports about the dangers of fracking. Take the recent Vanity Fair article cites adjacent residents and farms having brown water flowing out of their pipes, staining laundry, scarring dishes and emitting a foul smell of chemicals.
The gas company in this article has been fined by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, and the State has turned off water supply to residents, citing fracking contamination.
Now environmental groups are calling for the Federal EPA to more closely regulate fracking practices and, at the very least, to reveal what’s in that wonderfu, special, fracking fluid elixir. There is some question as to whether one company is using diesel fuel is in their fluid, which of course isn’t safe for drinking.
In addition to the water supply hazards, fracking is also water intensive—an issue for drought areas—and there’s no telling what damage is being done to the surface land due to fracking waste and clear cutting.
All this is to say is that there is an affordable and reliable alternative to fracking:Â Solar hot water is clean energy, requires few resources to manufacture, and is affordable now. Gas may be cheap now, but at what cost to our health and the environment?
Please consider solar hot water for your business and home. It’s a fracking-free alternative to potentially dangerous water heating.
Tags: solar and the environment
Posted in Solar Hot Water News, Solar Thermal & Solar Hot Water News | 1 Comment »
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