Solar Hot Water – HISTORY, past and future, a video you should watch

Here’s a video I just happened upon…

http://blip.tv/file/601559

This guy, John Perlin, co-author of A GOLDEN THREAT: 2500 Years of Solar Architecture and Technology, talks about the history of solar hot water heating, how it’s currently used around the world, and its future in a “post-carbon” society. Pretty heady stuff…pour a stiff drink of whatever, sit down, and check this out. It’s pretty long, but worth it.  I am only marginally interested in this kind of thing, but historical context can be very valuable.

An update:  Thanks to the quick success of our initial test, Solar Hot Water TV is getting it’s own domain.  solarhotwatertv.com will soon launch, complete with all the content we’ve generated so far, and more.  We are learning and expanding, and I want to shout out to Yaro Starek, and thank him for his website http://www.becomeablogger.com/, he’s really providing a great service in posting these videos that walk you through exactly how to set up a wordpress blog.

So, we are working furiously on solar hot water TV 2.0, and I want to thank everyone for reading it up to this point. I’ll be working exclusively on solar hot water TV on my upcoming vacation, so expect some content soon. 

Here’s a teaser:  There are some outrageous things going on in the energy debate, and I am steaming mad…you will be too when you find out what’s going on…

Cascade Sun Works – First Impressions

We have formed a new manufacturer relationship!  We intend to keep you updated on how things work out, and here’s how it all started…

We took a road trip down to Redmond Oregon to go visit Cascade Sunworks.  Initially, Dean saw their booth at NW Solar Expo in Portland, and immediately liked what he saw. He said at the time “It appeared to me that this was a complete system, which would drastically reduce our labor time during installation. It was also made in the USA, and American made means American Jobs.”

(that is a big deal to us)

We did more research, and eventually bid a job with their tank, which is called the Daystor i80, and upon winning the bid decided to head down to Oregon and meet our new manufacturers face to face.  Right from the start, we felt right at home.  Scott Gahan, Director of Operations, gave us the orientation.

He first showed us the tank in their showroom, which they had just assembled for us (they make their appliance onsite).  He explained all the parts, how it goes together, and then took us to a working residential installation in Bend.  We got to talk to the homeowner, see the system completely plumbed in, and got an overview of how the controller works. As it happens, the home owner did nothing but rave about the system.

Scott then took us to an installation IN PROGRESS a few miles away, where we got a great training on how they mount their collectors, using “Fast Jacks”, and he even took us up on the roof, and clued us in on the finer points of how they mount collectors.  We were impressed.

Afterwards, he took us out to lunch, helped us load the tank into the van, and told us about their warranty, which is 2 years, PARTS AND LABOR!!!!! This is big, people.  These guys stand behind their product.

We’ll be installing this tank you see in the video in the latter part of September, and we’ll be giving you a full review at that time…

How to choose a Solar Hot Water System, Part 3

Let’s review:

You researched solar hot water installers in your area (via yellowpages or hopefully, www.findsolar.com) called the first one that seemed reputable to you (or was recommended to you by a happy customer), and scheduled a site visit.

The estimator came out, chatted with you about your goals and hot water usage, took some measurements, looked at your existing water heater, climbed up on the roof, determined your solar exposure, and then took off back to his office, letting you know that he’d have a bid for you in a few days.

Questions to ask: Get them to talk about what solar hot water systems they install, and then look the manufacturer up on the internet.  See what you can find out about them.  It is impossible to overstate the necessity of due diligence on your part.  The ignorant consumer is a menace, educate yourself.

There are various ways a contractor will submit their bid to you.  The salesman or estimator may email it to you, or he or she may come back to your place, price and installation contract in hand.  Much could be said about installation contracts, BUT sufficed to say READ it before you sign it, and if you have any doubts, have your attorney look over it.  Yeah, it might cost you a  few hundred dollars more, but that again is a bargain, considering what’s at stake.

Once you’ve decided to move forward, be prepared to shell out 50% up front.  Some companies have financing, but we don’t, and the industry in our area is too small to make it practical.  If you can’t afford it, get a home equity loan.

Permits:  Make sure the installation company handles the permitting process for you.  Getting a permit can be a pain, and take time.  When scheduling the installation date, make sure you ask about this, and get it in writing that they will handle the permitting process.  Permit requirements vary from having to filling out a form and paying a fee to having to submit a technical drawing of the installation, getting an engineer to inspect and sign off on your design and everywhere in-between.  You do not want to have to deal with this yourself (unless you are doing the installation yourself).

I’m going to devote a full article to “Installation Day” – so stay tuned.

Solar Hot Water TV: Introduction to the Plumber

Producing a video for the web?  It’s not as easy as it looks.

“Sure”, I said. ”This will be no problem!” I said.  Actually, it’s been fun – I’m sure in 6 months I’ll look back on these videos and laugh – we’ll be much better by then.  In the meantime, meet Dean Bell.  He’s my business partner and repository of vast plumbing knowledge.  When he asked me to come help him launch the solar hot water division of his company, I was deeply honored.  Dean is the best plumber I know, and an exceptional human being.  I’ve worked alongside him for the past year and a half, as he, with very little help or guidance, put himself through a crash-course on solar hot water installation.  When he talks about installing solar water heating systems, he knows what he is talking about.

FYI – yes, we know about the little hiccup at the end…I’m working on that.

Solar Hot Water TV Video Introduction…

Our first video!!!

A little background:  I have only the most novice skills on the camera, and the video editing software is pretty new to me, so, we are not quite CNN yet, but we are doing what we can to get you the info that you need.  It’s short, but it works.

Solar Hot Water System Hype/Reality: How to Choose a solar hot water system, part 2

So, you’ve had the weekend to think about the financial outlay of $8,000 to $10,000 for your solar hot water system, and you’ve gotten your spouse to agree that it’s a good idea.

What next?

First, you must find out who installs solar hot water systems in your area.  This is true EVEN if you are going to DIY, because you want to find out what systems are being installed in your area, and where you can get parts.  Finding the people who install in your area also helps because if you are going to do it yourself, and you screw up, it’s nice to know that there is somebody who can come and save your ass(for somewhere between $80 and $150 bucks an hour).  Having said that, all the rules for picking a good contractor still apply, journeyman plumber, make sure he has references you can call, or other systems you can go look at.

While we are on the subject of hourly rates, let me digress a moment.  “Why is it that journeyman plumbers are so expensive these days?” I was asked this question a week ago, after a client winced at a bill.

I asked Dean about this, and here’s what he said:

“Well, you get to a point where you are paid for what you know, not for what you do. After years of experience in the field, which cannot be purchased, they can only be earned, through training, trial and error, and time, a plumber’s value is as much what he knows, as what he can do, and that’s what you pay for.”  Also, consider the sheer overhead of the plumbing business.  When you go to the doctor, you are paying at least $100 bucks an hour, and you must drive yourself in, sit in the waiting room, and you only get about 5 minutes of their time.   Your plumber must drive his work vehicle (a truck or van) all the way out to your house, bringing with him all of his tools, supplies, materials and equipment, and KNOWLEDGE to fix your problem.  Also, he must guarantee his work – one way or the other, you expect your problem to be solved when he leaves.  So, when you think about the cost of a plumber, think about all those trips(fuel)to home depot for parts, the time you will spend fiddling with it yourself, the spousal aggravation, the lost weekend (because, hey, you still gotta work during the week), and REALIZE the bargain of your plumber’s hourly rate.

We get calls all the time from folks who try to fix a simple leak themselves, and end up making it much worse, so, unless you really know what you are doing, do yourself a favor, and call an expert.  It will be cheaper in the long run.

OK – End of Digression.

After you’ve found some installers in your area, have them come out to your house, and do a site visit.  I’ve linked to Wisconsin’s Focus on Energy website, highlighting a really great state incentive program. The website is really informative, also.  We’ll feature it later in the week as a “Rave”, where we will contrast the Wisconsin state program with other states, some good, some not so good.

The site visit will cost you anywhere between $200 and $400 dollars.  If the site visit is free, it means one of two things: Either there are many installation companies in your area, and competition has driven them to eat the labor cost of the site visit, or they don’t know what they are doing.  We used to do site visits for free – back when we first started, and we didn’t know what we were doing.  Any company who decides not to charge for site visits is either being forced to by competition, or making a bad business decision.

The site visit usually works like this:  The estimator (or whomever does this at the company you’ve called) sets up an appointment with you, and comes to your home or business.  They will interview you, talk to you about your hot water usage, your overall goals for your solar hot water system, ask to see copies of your utility bills, and probably climb up on your roof.  They’ll inspect your existing hot water tank, plumbing, and probably make some initial recommendations.  They will have some tools – tape measure, solar measurement device(there’s several, they all do the same thing), clipboard, laptop, digital camera, etc.  Hopefully they are in some kind of uniform, polo shirt with company logo embroidered, work pants of some kind.  If the estimator shows up in a suit, get really suspicious.

After they’ve collected their check, and left, give em’ about 3 days. You are not the only person they are giving a price to, so relax.

Next, we’ll deal with what happens when you get the bid…(make sure you are sitting down when you review the numbers, we don’t want any concussions).

Solar Hot Water Hype: How do you choose a solar hot water system?

Scenario:

Energy prices are hurting you.  You’re spending more at the pump, the drumbeat of the increasing cost of oil is constantly being sounded on the local and national news, food prices are up, the kids are screaming for a new whatever, you just got a notice from the power company that your utility rates are going up,  and you are stressed.  You are looking at your energy consumption, and thinking about ways to save money. 

You are somewhat “Green”, some of your appliances are energy star, and you’ve switched a few lightbulbs to CFL’s, and while you don’t fully understand climate change, or necessarily agree with all that you’ve heard about it, you at least have some vague sense that using less energy is a good idea, for a variety of reasons.  You’ve looked in to getting a PV array on your house, and have winced at the price tag…now you are looking at a solar hot water system.

Where do you start?

First, it’s important to establish in your mind some realistic expectations. First, take your utility bill, and look at it. This generally applies to gas or electric homes (if you for some reason are using propane to heat your water, you should already have a solar hot water system, because propane is extremely expensive right now, and your payback will be extremely short).  It’s safe to assume that 30% of your bill accounts for your water heating load every month.

Soooooo, let’s say your bill is $200 per month. You are spending $60 a month to heat your water. Annually, a solar hot water system can save you at least 50% of that annually. We are talking about $360 bucks a year, for the next 30 years. Add it up! $10,800, if utility prices were to stay the same.  Now, there are plenty of payback schedules and calculations you’ll see on the internet, and many different ways of looking at this situation, and many differnet scenarios.

Forget about the cost schdules.  Figure on at least $10,000 for your solar hot water system, installed.  If you do it yourself, you can do it for maybe $4,000. Then, figure on your energy costs tripling within 10 years.  Don’t believe it?  Look at the cost of oil in the last 5, and look at what you spend on gas. All energy costs are connected, and with all this talk of upgrading the grid to accomodate electric vehicles, increasing power demand in cities, yadda yadda yadda, and you know I’m right.

(We will talk about and review some of the cheaper systems out there, but for now, believe me when I tell you that for maximum efficiency and longevity, a properly installed solar hot water system is going to run you between $8,000 and $10,000, period. That’s how much it costs, before whatever incentives you may have in your state, and the aforementioned Residential Energy Tax credit, at a max of $2,000)

This makes the payback somewhere between 5 and 8 years. Right now, it’s 10 years, but your bills will increase, BANK ON IT.

Once you’ve wrapped your brain around that, then look at where you live, and follow this general guide:

EERE Consumer Guide to Solar Hot Water

The general rule is, if you don’t have freezing temps, you don’t need a closed loop system.  The warmer it is where you live, the less you have to spend, and the more simple your system can be.

We’ll get into the specifics next week, but for now, wrap your brain round the numbers above.

Also, read this article:  It’s really good.

http://greenbuildingelements.com/2008/07/09/my-solar-hot-water-experience/

Solar website Review – findsolar.com

I consistently rant about how behind the USA seems to be on solar hot water, and if you look around on the web, there are plenty of examples of this – but here is a notable exception:

www.findsolar.com

FindSolar is a really great idea, wish I’d thought of it myself.  It’s basically a database of solar installers all over the country, with contact info, a rating system, a cost calculator, and some good information on the technology.  Solar Hot Water gets equal treatment with PV, which is different.  Here’s how it works:  There’s a button on the homepage that says “Find a Solar Pro” - you click it, and are taken to a really great search page.  You can search by name, state, or for a distributor or manufacturer.  The detail on each installation company is very helpful – customers can even write reviews!

I highly recommend this site as a great resource for find a solar installer in your area, check it out.

IRS Form 5695 – Residential Energy Credits, Endangered by Congressional Idiots

(Deep breath)

I hope you will pardon me for a few minutes, I’m going to rant, and get something off my chest.

 

First, let’s review the state of the solar hot water incentives in the USA.  The only financial incentive that is available to everyone is the Residential Energy Credits, or IRS form 5695. Various states have their own incentives, some better than others, but anybody can use IRS form 5695 when they do a solar installation with OG rated equipment. Sometimes referred to as the “Renewable Energy Tax Credit”, this incentive makes available a tax credit of 30% of system cost, capped at $2000 for a residential solar hot water installation, uncapped for a commercial installation (so, whatever the cost is, reduce it by 30%).

This is a good incentive! It helps!!! Oh, and it expires this year, on December 31, 2008.  Yep. That’s right, all gone.

 

Keith Johnson, of the Wall Street Journal blog, “Environmental Capital”, states the following:

“The renewable-energy industry’s still out of luck: The U.S. Senate tried and failed again to extend the tax credits that make clean energy competitive. That leaves the crucial government support even closer to expiration at the end of the year, and means lots of renewable-energy projects in pipelines around the country could get cancelled. “

Why has the U.S. Senate been unable to extend the tax credit? 

 

The esteemed Mr. Johnson again:

“Despite calls from people as disparate as Al Gore and T. Boone Pickens for more clean energy, the Senate vote wasn’t even as close as previous efforts to extend the tax credits—51 senators voted in favor, to 43 against. The measure needed 60 votes to be filibuster-proof—crucial at a time when Senate Republicans are holding their support for the tax credits until Democrats offer their support for more domestic oil drilling. If the two sides can find common ground, Congress could still renew the tax breaks after the August recess.”

 

Let’s just be really clear about this.  I think drilling for domestic oil is probably not the worst thing in the world. I think oil workers need jobs, and we should produce our own oil, while ramping down our use.  We can’t just “get off oil” tomorrow – too much of our infrastructure depends on it.  However, it is widely accepted that drilling domestically for oil will not impact gas prices for a long time, due to the logistics of building rigs, getting the oil out of the ground, down the pipeline, to a refinery…you get the picture.  According to Time magazine, “…even if tomorrow we opened up every square mile of the outer continental shelf to offshore rigs, even if we drilled the entire state of Alaska and pulled new refineries out of thin air, the impact on gas prices would be minimal and delayed at best. A 2004 study by the government’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) found that drilling in ANWR would trim the price of gas by 3.5 cents a gallon by 2027.”

 

Admittedly, our energy independence has to include oil in it somewhere, for many years to come – our infrastructure depends on it.

However, the incentive is vital for the US solar industry. Republican or Democrat, most sane and reasonable Americans will agree that a growing renewable energy industry means more local jobs, a stimulated economy and, god forbid, a cleaner environment.

So, for Congress to be at a stalemate over drilling, and to be holding the Residential Energy Tax credit hostage over this really kills me.

I’ll be ranting about this more later, but it’s an indication that we may continue to lag behind the rest of the world in our adoption of solar energy of all kinds for some time yet.

 

Production continues on our video project – stay tuned.

Solwest: Alternative Energy Fair, or sales hype fest?

I interviewed Dean Bell, my business partner and good friend, about his recent trip to solwest, an alternative energy festival in John Day Oregon.  Solwest has been going on for quite a few years, and Dean was excited to go and find out more information.  From the promotional literature, it seemed like your normal, run of the mill alternative energy fair, complete with the standard solar hot dog cookers and ovens, solar shower, and various biofuel exhibits, and recumbent bikes. 

There were a few classes that Dean wanted to take, and what he encountered there is partially why he was so open to the idea of Solar Hot Water TV.  I asked him what he was looking for at Solwest.

Dean:  “I wanted to see different installations, evacuated tube collectors vs. flat plat collectors, cold climate techniques vs hot climate, real nuts and bolts.  Practical examples of data, piping diagrams, schematics, that’s what I expected from the class. (the class was “Types of Solar Hot Water Systems, led by Michael Fitzgerald of Ecosystems)  Instead, what I got was basically a light sales presentation, emphasis on light. That’s not what I was looking for.”

Apparently, there were some great educational displays for the kids, but as one slightly annoyed fair attendee remarked, “They are preaching to the choir here.” The point being people who go to these fairs are generally already sold on alternative energy being a good thing, and how much more convincing do they really need?

What we would like to see more of is practical demos at these fairs. Yeah, yeah, we know all about “educating the public” and “raising public awareness”, but we also need to take the opportunity to help the renewable energy professionals out there with installation tips, tricks, and more meaty, technical stuff.  This would also serve the do-it-yourself-er type, who knows a bit about plumbing and construction, and needs some guidance.

For instance, we’d like to see a demo on roof-mounting different solar collectors.  Here’s an idea:  Fabricate or haul a small section of roof out there to the training, get your power tools out, get your various mounting systems (feel free, intrepid salespeople, to pimp the ones you are selling, or that work with your products) and show people exactly how it works.  Drill a hole in the roof, and mount it.  Show is the right way to do it, and the wrong way to do it. There’s several different approaches, but talk about how you find the studs through the roof.  Make it practical.  Make sure people know that it’s NOT EASY, it’s a PAIN IN THE BUTT, and you should have a professional do it.  There will be a contractor there who will say, “That’s wrong, don’t do it that way.”  Call him out!! Have him come up and show his method.  This is what we need in the industry right now, conversations and training going on that you can use, otherwise, we all continue to fumble about, figuring out our own ways of doing things, and learning by trial and error.

Let’s learn by sharing information, instead of just by trial and error.