Solar Heating in BC.

solar-panels-home Solaris is experiencing a significant and growing trend by developers to include solar heating in new construction projects. Builders are seeking ways to improve the operating cost and comfort of new homes, that involves solar heating alternatives - and away from incumbent carbon fuels like natural gas, propane, and electricity. Once someone experiences the comfort of radiant floor heating, and understands water heat is 25 times more efficient than air heat, than there is no going back to the way homes were built after WWII. Old design houses on crawl spaces are being replaced by next generation houses on radiant heated insulated slabs, in less time to build and lower cost. The financial comparison is compelling - in favor of the radiant and solar heating model. With reduced solar costs, proven installations, and increasing popularity, all that stands in the way of this growing solar trend is educating the builder.

There are now 36 solar communities in BC, that include a Solar Ready requirement for new homes, in advance to inclusion for the next Building Code. Perhaps the forward thinking solar policy is what is turning this trend with builders in BC. A few years ago Spain put Solar installs as a Building Code requirement, and it has been very positive for them. Vancouver Mayor, Gregor Robertson, said that toliets were only added as a Code requirement 60 years ago, we need to incorporate common sense improvements into the Code.

Drainback Pro - Solar Pre-Heat with eTankless

One popular basic solar option is the new CSA listed Drainback Pro, featuring two collectors on the roof and a stainless steel solar storage tank that pre-heats the water, with an electric Tankless Water Heater hung on the wall as auxillary backup for winter days. Solar pre-heat systems can be installed in new construction for about $3500 - making them on par with a gas Tankless Water Heater, but far less expensive to operate with free solar heat.

Solar Radiant Heating

Solar space heating demand is warming up now in both new construction and renovations. Builders in BC are often taking the lead by installing solar heating renovations to their own residence, as well as offering solar as an option in the design stage of contruction. The technology of sizing a solar install to store excess heat from the summer into a large annual reservoir under the foundation has been proven in European Passif Haus design for over 25 years. A LEED Platinum level home with very low heat loss, can use solar heating for virtually all the space heating and domestic hot water requirements in Canada. NRCan demonstrated this in Montreal in 2009, using 50m2 of collectors and a 15m3 storage tank to achieve 99% of the large home total heating. Solaris is underway with several similar projects on Vancouver Island, BC. that use 12 BluTec 2m collectors and a large storage tank to heat water for radiant floors and domestic hot water. Developers and designers are interested to find ways to cut fuel costs and use more comfortable radiant heat, rather than forced air furnace with an air heat pump.

Toll Brothers Goes Solar

Soft US construction conditions have builders looking for ways to differentiate themselves in a buyer's market. Toll Brothers (NYSE:TOL), the nation's leading builder of luxury homes, announced on October 20th 2011, that it will now include solar energy in their new communities. Mark Bailey, Vice President of Toll Brothers summarized their commitment by saying "Toll Brothers builds high end, luxury homes – the premiere living environment; we offer state-of-the-art technologies and a broad range on energy management features. We're focused on delivering superior energy monitoring and applications, and Echo was the clear choice in the AZ market. Echo provided us with the opportunity to differentiate Toll Brothers – and help sell more homes."

Solaris Roof

Another near future trend favors the 'Solaris Roof', which is a roofing panel that combines solar PV and Thermal into one cladding surface. By adding solar heating pipes underneath PhotoVoltaic thin-film, we are able to supply all of the heating and electrical needs of a modern home by simply covering the south roof with built-in Solaris Roof PV-T panels. This breakthrough development boosts the efficiency of solar PV from 16% to 54% for the same coverage, and lowers the building energy installed cost dramatically, with simple to install roofing panels. Solaris is looking for demonstration host buildings to install and monitor the next generation Solaris Roof in 2012. Send an email if you would like to know more about these top solar trends.

Tankless Water Heater Study - 20 Year Payback

A two-year field study of installed Tankless Water Heaters by the Center for Energy and Environment and theBrookhaven National Laboratory has recently been published. The Government report is available from their web site: Download Actual-Savings-and-Performance-of-Natural-Gas-Tankless-Water-Heaters.pdf (PDF, 9.07 MB)

Water heating is the second largest energy use in residential homes in the USA, at 25%. It is also a very inefficient use of energy, with typical equipment efficiencies around 60%. The Center for Energy and Environment with funding from the Minnesota Office of Energy Security ran a two year field monitoring project to determine if high efficiency tankless water heaters could be part of the solution to this large inefficiency. The simple answer is no.

A 37% savings of water heating energy per household was found for replacing a typical natural gas draft storage water heater with a tankless one. However, this savings was not enough to offset the high incremental cost resulting in paybacks from 20 to 40 years.

Tankless water heaters saved energy and provided homeowners with acceptable hot water service at a reduced monthly cost without increasing total hot water consumption. Tankless water heaters have achieved about 5% of the new water heater market despite the long paybacks. Improving the payback could increase installations and a significant amount of energy could be saved. Electric Tankless were the most efficient at 88%, with a cost of 15% a gas fired unit, and a payback in the 4-6 year range. When combined with solar pre-heat, and a drain heat recovery coil, the economy can be the highest. with paybacks of 6 years.

Solar Colwood Hot Water

The small city of Colwood has received Federal grant money and BC funding for the installation of up to 1000 solar hot water and ductless heat pumps over the next 3 years. If you happen to live in Colwood, you should contact the program manager through their web site, and take advantage of up to $4250 towards a solar hot water install. Incentive amounts are to be reduced as the uptake goals are met, so delaying can be costly. The first install took place on August 25th, seven months after the program was announced January 25th, and about 2 1/2 months after the June 11th launch date.

Solar Colwood has restricted product selection, allowing only one Canadian brand from Ontario, two from Europe and one from China. Solaris is the only brand Made-In-BC, and anticipates being added soon to compliment the choices with the only Drainback system based on pure water, that does not use a pressurized Glycol method.

The Solaris dealer in Colwood is West Bay Mechanical, they can be contacted at this email when it comes time for a site assessment. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

LiveSmartBC Solar Incentives

Victoria - BC announced the 2 year return of the LiveSmartBC incentives program on April 16, 2011. There are increases is many energy saving categories, such as solar hot water has been doubled from $250 to $500 now. Solaris BluTec collector and Engineered system does qualify for the $500 incentive throughout BC. You may also be elegible for Federal EcoEnergy Retrofit rebates, and various community incentives like Solar Colwood has for limited choices.

Solaris with double wall heat exchanger was elegible this spring for inclusion on the CSA F-379 'Table-2' page of systems currently under going full packaged system testing, however the Election and changes regarding NRCan liability legal issues had them cancel the Table-2 in early July. Unfortunately, the EcoEnergy incentive only applies to a few brands, and only two models that can be installed in BC because of the requirement for double wall heat exchangers. Solaris is on track to complete full CSA F-379 packaged system testing by the end of this year, and would qualify for all incentives in ongoing incentive programs.

Solar Ready BC Communites

Solar Ready Is Here Now

On June 14, the BC Ministry of Energy and Mines and Minister Responsible Housing announced that the Solar Hot Water Ready Regulation will take effect on June 21. The regualtion is expected to be part of National and Provincial Building Codes next Spring.

Thirty-six communities have signed onto the regulation that requires all new single-family homes to have room on the roof for solar collectors and conduits from the attic to the vicinity of the hot water tank to make the later installation of a solar hot water system very easy. Of the 36 communities that agreed to implement the regulation sixteen are Solar Communities.

"Greening the building code is an important part of the provincial goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It is one of many steps the government is taking to help us meet our energy conservation targets as our population expands and demand for electricity grows. It’s encouraging to see so many communities work towards a cleaner future." said Rich Coleman, BC Minister of Energy.

Quick Facts:

Making a house solar ready will add approximately $200 to $500 to the cost of a new home.
A solar hot water system can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by one to two tonnes per year for a single-family home using natural gas for water heating.

Learn More:

Visit: www.housing.gov.bc.ca

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