Dog Days Continued from page 38
Bob Dolan, owner of BMK Plumbing & Solar of the Midwest, stands atop the solar powered restroom in Olathe, Kansas. The completed installation used 120 Viessmann Vitosol 300-T evacuated tubes for solar ther- mal and 20 Suntech 175-watt panels for the facility’s elec- tricity needs.
ed to AC power, which runs the lights, fans, solar pump- ing station and radiant floor pumping station. “My good friends at Pestinger Heating and Air, Salina,
Kansas, who installed the HVAC, electrical and solar PV systems, partnered with me on the electrical and mechan- ical part of the project,” said Dolan. The net energy usage is conservatively estimated at 2,347 kw/h and 378 gallons of propane, as estimated by
The collectors are interconnected through the reliable stainless steel corrugated pipe plug-in connectors on installation. The individual tubes can be precisely aligned with the sun by axial rotation.
Richard Beardmore, engineer, Latimer Sommers & Associates. (See Figures 1 and 2 for potential thermal and PV savings.) “Since the solar PV and solar thermal sys- tems were designed to carry the loads on sunny days, it’s all savings, but we do have propane as a backup source,” said Beardmore. “With the uniqueness of the solar thermal and solar PV
on this project, the general contractor, Wilcott Construction, took great care in detailing to the architects and engineers all items that came up in the construction process; this resulted in those issues being addressed promptly, keeping the project moving forward. The engi- neers and architects were very forward thinking as well,” said Dolan. The project wasn’t without its share of obstacles. Balancing the cost, maintenance, payback and energy usage were just some of the problems to overcome. Also, BMK battled the elements while working on the
project in the winter months. “After a long battle fighting winter weather, the Heritage Park solar-powered restroom is up and running. All that remains now is to allow the sun to do its work to run this facility. Time will be on our side in proving that solar thermal and PV can work on build- ings such as this,” said Dolan. n
Circle 25 on Reader Reply Form on page 57 Page 40/Plumbing Engineer
The 400-gallon solar tank was custom-built by Metropolitan Industries and has double coils for transferring heat from the solar system to the radiant floor system.
April 2011
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