We love our hot showers and baths after a hard day or early morning. Wouldn't it be nice if that heat comes directly from the sun's energy? A solar collector on your roof captures the sun's energy to heat your water, even on cloudy days.
Just imagine having a shower, cleaning dishes or doing laundry with free solar hot water! Hot water is the second highest energy cost in a typical household, after space heating. It represents about 35% of total energy consumption in our homes, according to Environment Canada. Japan and Germany are current leaders in the solar markets, yet BC's climate shows greater solar potential than both countries. Does solar work here? Yes, it does!
TerraTek Energy Solutions Inc. is a Registered Solar BC Installer, and winner of their Installer of the Year Award in both 2008 and 2009.
Many homes are suitable or can be made suitable for solar hot water. To know whether your home is solar ready, you need to answer a number of questions:
Installing a solar thermal system is one of the most reliable and cost effective ways to reduce your electric or gas bill. When properly installed a thermal system can provide up to 60% of your annual hot water, enabling year-round savings on your energy bill. Solar hot water systems have one of the best paybacks in the renewable energy market.
Solar pool heating will instantly reduce your pool heating costs. It also extends your pool season by several weeks and reduces carbon emissions. Solar heating for outdoor pools is generally done with with unglazed collectors. Unglazed collectors cost less and typically offer payback periods ranging from 2 to 5 years.These collectors are easy to install and can be integrated in either existing or new pools.
For indoor pools and hot-tubs, glazed collectors identical to those found in solar domestic hot water systems are more appropriate.
TerraTek is an Authorized Distributor of:
EnerWorks is a Canadian made Solar Hot Water system. They are the only CSA approved system to date and they carry a 10 year warranty. EnerWorks is a closed loop system, which means the solar loop between the collectors and the heat exchanger is pressurized and filled with a food grade glycol and distilled water mixture. By doing this, we enable the system to operate in temperatures of approximately -35 degrees Celsius without freezing.
The EnerWorks system includes a couple of features that no other system offers. Overheat protection is built in to the pump station and the collector. Once the tank reaches maximum temperature, it turns the pump off to avoid overheating the tank. When the collectors get too hot, a damper opens on the back of the collector to allow air to travel behind it. This cools off the collector(s). Another great feature of the system is the Thermosyphon Loop. A lot of solar hot water systems only work when there is a draw on hot water (when you use hot water). EnerWorks will gain heat when there is a draw, but when there isn't a draw, it pulls the cooler water from the bottom of the tank, warms it and allows it to thermosyphon to the top of the tank. Also, it uses a valve that back flushes the heat exchanger to prevent scaling (build up of sediment).
EnerWorks has also recently introduced a thermal energy monitor with their systems www.enerworks.com. This allows the homeowner to view energy savings, cost savings, greenhouse gas emissions saved, and water temperature at any given time.
211-2459 Cousins Av.
Courtenay, BC
V9N 3N6
© Terratek Energy Solutions Inc. 2011