Welcome to our Green Consulting Blog – Ask us a Question!

Welcome to the Go Green Consulting Blog. We welcome questions from you regarding energy efficiency, green building, and any other relevant questions you might have for us. Ask away…email us at gogreen@warmtraining.org

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Solar Hot Water Update

I have been doing some research lately into Solar Hot Water heating systems and I wanted to post some of the information that have learned. Two people who I spoke with who were extremely helpful were Christina Snyder at the Clean Energy Coalition (888.818.0987 x707) and Tony at Renewable Energy Solutions (734-649-1777). (they are not responsible for any inaccuracies)  Here is some of the stuff I found out:

Types of Collectors
1. Flat Plate:
- cheaper but careful of ones with thin film plastic glazing
- takes more sun to heat up (greater water volume)
- collectors may not last as long
2. Evacuated Tube (coaxial)
- more expensive
- lower mass system so heats up quicker…better for MI winters
- double wall system recommended (vs. single wall)
- better longevity as a system
- maintenance easy (like changing out a light bulb)

Maintenance Costs (estimated):

  • Check 6 months after install ( for leaks and such)
  • Yearly checks on closed loop pressure and pressure differentials (Building Manager can do this)
  • Change of Heat Transfer Fluid every 3 -5 years (Should be done by Professional )
  • Replace Pump – 10 years
  • Tank: 30 years (or longer) – less wear and tear than a directly heated tank.

Certification

The Solar Rating Certification Council certifies different type of solar heaters.

  • OG 100 – Collector Certification
  • OG 300 Complete System Certification

Certified Michigan Based Manufacturers of Solar Hot Water Systems

BTF Solar is one MI based manufacturer that comes recommended

Financial Incentives

DTE Incentives Program

Michigan Incentives Overview

Michigan – Residential Energy-Efficient Appliance Rebate Program (Heating and Water Heating)

Solar Calculators

http://www.findsolar.com/

http://www.joolze.com/

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RFI’s, RFQ’s, and RFP’s, OH MY!

With the magnitude of federal dollars flowing to state and local project these days, plenty of you are rolling out your own projects. I’ll bet that many government folks have never had to issue so many Requests for stuff as now. Well, we just had a series of two workshops on this and wanted to share the resources we have, just in case you weren’t able to make it.  Here is a link to the video, presentations, and print resources provided in that workshop

http://www.warmtraining.org/gov/

Any follow up questions?

Joel

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Guest Blog on Powering the Nation

Hey folks, just a heads up that Powering the Nation just posted a guest blog I did for them on the future of energy. Yep, that’s me on the list, right above John Kerry.

Here’s the list of guest editorials:
http://unc.news21.com/index.php/opinions.html

And here’s a direct link to my full article:
http://unc.news21.com/index.php/opinions/277-the-energy-challenge-act-today-shape-tomorrow.html

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Rainwater Harvesting for Michigan Homes

What would it cost to build a water-catchment system for a home in SE Michigan? Code and other such issues will vary widely, but the actual construction costs are likely to be relatively uniform. I recently discovered that the city of Guelph, Ontario has done some great forward thinking work on encouraging rainwater catchment for their residents. I emailed the folks at Guelph, and they referred me to Ben Polley, a builder with Evolve Builders. Ben provided me with these excellent details about their cost and performance estimates.

Note that these figures include a good number of caveats about current unknowns and several costs that are not included, but they give us a good start on tracking down the overall costs. If you have additional data to round this picture out more, please let us know in the comments below.

More >

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