21 Plateau Cres, Halifax, Nova Scotia

Posted April 15th, 2009 by DanRoscoe

Solar

Intro Text:

Killam Properties Inc – 21 Plateau – Solar Project

Location: Clayton Park, Nova Scotia

Size: 40 Solar Thermal Panels

Type: Domestic Hot Water Preheat, turnkey installation on existing 41 Unit apartment building

Technology: Thermo Dynamics Ltd – G Series

Output: over 7,000L of annual heating oil savings

Carbon Impact: 25tons of CO2 Emissions reduced annually

Monitoring: View live system monitoring HERE

SYSTEM INFO AND LIVE DATA

The diagram below shows the schematic of the Solar Hot Water System. The 40 roof mounted panels are shown on the top left of the image. Glycol flows through the panels from the top to the bottom. The heated glycol (Red) flows to the dual Heat Exchangers where the heat is transferred to the pre-heat water. The cold glycol then flows back to the panels.

The Blue line on the far right marked "IN" shows the water coming into the system. This is the water that before the solar system would have to be completely heated by the existing oil fired hot water system. This water is stored in 10 x 100 Gallon storage tanks. The water in these tanks is circulated up to the heat exchangers for preheating. The thick Red line leaving these tanks marked "OUT" is the preheated water.

The temperature IN and OUT is shown as T1 and T2 respectively. The difference between these two temperatures is the heat added by the solar panels.

The volume of Domestic Hot Water used is measured every minute, and added up over each day. This is shown as F1. On average, this building uses about 7000L of hot water every day.

The difference between T1 and T2, along with the volume of water used each minute, can be used to calculate the amount of energy provided by the solar panels, and therefore the amount of oil saved.

The daily hot water used, along with daily and month energy/oil savings is shown on the top right of the image.

The image shown on this website shows the LIVE conditions of the system.

For more info, and Live System Data, click HERE

The following graph shows the past 7 days of the T1 and T2 values. You can see the difference in energy provided on a daily basis, based on how sunny it was. The most recent data is on the right hand side of the graph, and each grid line moving left across the graph represents half a day.