Project Description

Capital Sun Group designed a solar laundry hot water system, solar indoor pool heating system, and three solar thermal generator block heating. The laundry system consisted of 10 glazed flat plate solar collectors and a 480 gallon unpressurized storage tank. It employed a drain back design for freeze protection and offsets natural gas for two 120 gallon water heaters. Capital Sun designed the system in a preheating configuration in order to capture the most energy possible in the winter months. The integration design consisted of two sixty linear foot copper heat exchangers in a EPDM bladder lined site built tank that could be fit into the existing space. The pool heating system consists of unglazed EPDM solar collectors and heats pool water directly before it enters a gas-boiler energized heat exchanger. The design required determining the best route for 3 inch PVC risers to the roof and back to the pool heating equipment area in the basement of the building. The system was designed in a preheating configuration in front of a 1950s Bell and Gossett tube and shell heat exchanger that is energized by boiler heated water. The design for three emergency generator block heating systems using unglazed solar thermal air collectors employed a polymer panel for one, and for two, a metal wall constructed on an existing fence enclosing the generator sets. Each heating system has its own thermostat and differential solar control.

Energy Savings

The laundry system raises city water entering at 45 to 50 degrees to 80 to 130 degrees depending on the season. The pool heating system operates in non-freezing months and was demonstrated to be handling 100% of the heating load in the month of October when the boilers were shut down for a week. The genset heaters typically offset 30 to 35% of the electricity the block heaters consume annually.