1.575kW Solar Electric System with Velux Solar Hot Water System
The owner of this house built it in 2000 with the intention of adding solar to it eventually. He realized his vision in 2009 by installing both a solar electric and solar hot water system, something that many of Innovative Power Systems’ clients have chosen to do as evidenced by many other systems in our extensive gallery. The owner’s first step was to reduce the households’ energy usage, “With our kids in grade school during the past 10 years, we made it a family challenge to see how much we could reduce our usage of city gas and electricity. Each year I have calculated how many ccf’s of gas and kWh of electricity we saved compared to our index year (2004). Then I pay the difference to the kids as an incentive to keep trying. By 2008 we had gotten our electricity usage down to 12 kWh/ day average.”
The owner reports that he has been extremely satisfied with the system, “Our 2-panel Velux solar water heater gives us 80 gallons or more of hot water even on partly cloudy days, even in February and March! We’ve had many positive comments and inquiries from neighbors. We do not have a single complaint. We are able to give to charities and to our church as before, and we now have the added good feeling of knowing that we are making about 1/3 of our own power and reducing world CO2 emissions. We highly recommend other families make solar energy part of their plan right from the beginning when considering building or renovating a home.”
Innovative Power Systems installed this 1.575kW solar electric system in Northfield, Minnesota in 2009. Northfield is one of the greenest communities in Minnesota, leading the race in solar systems installed per capita. But look out Northfield, Afton is vying for the top spot! IPS expects this system, installed on the detached garage, to produce about 1,900kWh of electricity on average per year. Producing 1,900kWh of electricity annually from coal emits about 4,000 pounds of carbon dioxide. Preventing this much carbon dioxide from being released to the atmosphere is equivalent to adding 190 trees to our forests. Over a 30-year span, IPS expects this system will offset 120,000 pounds or 60 tons of carbon dioxide.
For the solar hot water portion of the project two Velux solar thermal collectors are flush mounted on the south facing roof and heat an 80 gallon solar storage tank. The solar storage tank provides preheated water for the back-up tankless water heater. The Velux collectors are a building integrated type of collector. Velux systems are great for new construction or in combination with a reroofing project. The panels are mounted directly to the roof decking and flashed into the shingles to resemble a skylight. The system will offset about 130 therms of natural gas per year, or 75% of the total hot water usage of an average family of 4.