CASE STUDIES

The highest mountain in Germany is called the Zugspitze and in the late 1990s a hotel called the Schneefernerhaus closed down and its premises were adapted to use as an Environmental Research Station. Its main task is to measure accurately and carefully changes in atmospheric pollution. There are many places doing this work throughout the world and the sum of their research adds greatly to our knowledge about global warming and climate change. If you went skiing on the Zugspitze, around noon you would see on the south side high on the wall of the environmental research station, a large mass of dark black solar water heating panels. A few hours later, this wall will appear to be silver. However, you would not be looking at a wall in the conventional sense, but a wall of vacuum thermal solar panels some 100 square meters in area, designed and installed. These panels provide spacing heating & hot water for the environmental research centre all year round. I should explain some deviations from the normal means of installing thermal solar systems that make the Zugspitze both dramatic to view and interesting to consider. At these latitudes, we normally recommend mounting the solar water heating panels at an angle of between 40 and 45 degrees. The Zugspitze's panels are mounted vertically, and thus do not receive the maximum amount of solar radiation.  The reason for this is snow. In normal conditions, snow will melt from a well - designed solar thermal panel first - usually before it melts from evacuated tubes - but these are not normal conditions. The panels are mounted on a mountain side some 2,650 metres above sea level. In these conditions snow is usually present ten out of twelve months each year, and so mounting the panels as a vertical wall prevents the snow collecting on them and enables the panels to collect light bouncing off the surrounding snow fields. The low winter sun makes the vertical angel more efficient in winter, because the sun's rays strike at a better angle. On good days, the panels achieve the solar constant which is 1.4kWm2; the yearly energy gain is 1950kWh/m2. For eight months of the year the panels provide a solar fraction of 100%. I have to admit that there some advantages in mounting panels on a building 2,600 meters above sea level. There are very good light levels so high; clouds and fogs often shroud the base of the mountains but leave the peak in bright light. The 100 square meters of panels are evacuated to around 3mbars of pressure. This is about 3% of atmospheric pressure at sea level.  Although it is not a perfect vacuum (does such a vacuum exist?) it is reinforced with krypton gas, just like installations we have completed in United Kingdom, Norway, Canada and numerous European Union Countries. For our technically minded readers, filling the panels with 30mbar krypton increases the insulation tremendously. The heat transition coefficient is 2.6W/m2K, which keeps heat losses to a minimum even in a place where temperature drops to -40 degrees c. The heat that the panels create from light is stored in a 100 m3 insulated fire tank. Because of the tremendous heat potential, Thermosolar had to design safeguards to ensure that the water stored would never be hotter than 60 degrees Celsius, otherwise fire fighters would be endangered in the event of fighting a fire. The station also specified the KSA Sea Sand Resistant Vacuum Solar water Heating panels, they do not contain insulation as a vacuum is the best form of insulation, The panels are evacuated on-site once installed. Over time the panels will lose their vacuum but the KSA Sea Sand Resistant Solar Water Heating Panels can be re-evacuated keeping the insulation at a maximum throughout the lifetime of the panel which should be in excess of 35+ years. As a result the important work of measuring atmospheric pollution is still being carried on in conditions unpolluted by the energy requirements that are needed to keep the researchers warm.

British Gas Solar, Centrica were invited by Land Mark Energy as part of a scheme with Suffolk Flag Ship Housing to tender for the installation of 24 LSP20+  Commercial Solar Water Heating panels to heat a large Pre-heat store and then divert excess energy to a heat exchanger installed within the central heating system so that the solar system will contribute towards the central heating and the domestic hot water. We are the preferred supplier to British Gas. This system has been installed on a extra care home for the elderly with laundry facilities and as such has a very high all year round Domestic Hot Water and Central heating demand so the installation of an industrial solar thermal system will greatly benefit this type of building. 24 x Award Winning LSP20+ Premium Commercial panels were installed as they have excellent performance and are a quality streamline looking product that suited both the requirements for power output and aesthetics. They were installed in 3 banks of 8 on A' frames. Structural calculations were made and additional timbers were fitted, these were weathered over by a specialist roofing contractor and then the A' frames were fixed to the timbers. This system will contribute around 20,000 Kwh’s per annum towards the domestic hot water and heating requirements and with the introduction of the Renewable Heat Incentive it could be set to produce an annual income of £2000 and gas savings of £1000 thus bringing the payback down to considerably. A display was fitted in the reception area so that the residents can monitor the systems performance. British Gas Solar Limited

 Solar Swimming Pool Heating from Celtic Renewable Energy of Launceston, Cornwall designed and installed a large array of LSP20+ Premium Commercial panels at the very successful, Award Winning Otter Falls Holiday Centre near Uppottery in Devon.   Listed as one of the star features of the centre, the superb indoor swimming  pool with the award winning panels mounted on the tile pool complex roof. The pool is used all year round by paying guests so it is important to ensure the water is well heated with temperatures required at 28⁰C.       The solar system integrates with the existing pool equipment using a specialist Bowman heat exchanger to transfer the heat produced by the collectors. Fuel savings are significant with payback in less than 3 years.

A fantastic example of a Solar Swimming Pool Heating installation using the Award Winning LSP20+ Premium Commercial panels and completed in summer so we all got a nice sun tan in the process. The customer was spending over £6,000 on gas to heat his swimming pool before the panels were installed. With a large south facing roof we installed an array of solar thermal panel’s too heat the pool. The panels were integrated into the slate roof for a

Clean, sharp & roof integrated to alleviate the solar panels being cooled from the wind. As a bonus we also linked the panels to the main house hot water system..! with such a large array of panels the system heats the customers 300 Litre hot water cylinder first and then the pool providing the customer with free hot water and a very large saving on the swimming pool heating cost, the payback was very quick indeed.

Neale-Wade Academy is a secondary school and sixth form with academy status in the market town of March, Cambridgeshire, England. As with many state schools, the current school was the product of a merger of a grammar school and a comprehensive school. The college can trace its history back to 1696 when William Neale left an estate, the income of which was to help educate 8 poor boys. In 1717, Henry Wade left £20 per annum to pay for a schoolmaster to teach 20 poor children of the Parish. These two bequests were the origin of what eventually became March Grammar School.  The School premises were built on Station Road in 1876 and the school stayed there until a new site was opened on Wimblington Road in 1964. In recent years there have been many changes to the school. One such change was a heating system upgrade, driven by energy efficiency measures. The UK's leading commercial heating specialist Lochinvar, established over 100 years ago, providing hot water solutions since 1939. The UK operation is based in Banbury, Oxfordshire were invited to supply the energy efficiency measures.  Lochinvar supplied  (x8) LSP20+ Premium Solar Water Heating Panels together with a 1000 L single coil pre-heat tank. The solar water heating panels are specially designed and built to ensure they do not Overheat. The temperature of the panels will not exceed 190°C.  Using a specialist glycol antifreeze solution it means the panels can operate in temperature range of -32°C to +230°C. The pre-heat solar tank feeds an existing single coil domestic hot water (DHW )vessel fed by the boilers. The DHW feeds the shower block in the existing sports facility at the school. The drive behind the installation was the need to reduce the carbon foorprint of the building together with reducing the overhall water heating costs for the school.

Specialist Solar Installers Celtic Renewable Energy Ltd, of Launceston, Cornwall installed a number of separate commercial solar collector systems at Paignton Zoo. The Solar Water Heating systems provide hot water for toilet facilities in the Mammal House, Mother & Baby Unit, Main Reception Area and the new Crocodile Swamp. The five panel system near the main visitor entrance is used to heat a 400 litre hot water cylinder which serves the ladies and gents toilets along with baby changing facilities that are situated  inside the reception area. The four panel system (right) on the roof of the Mammal House supplies hot water for office staff. Central to the park there is another two panel system serving the Mother and Baby Unit toilet and wash facilities. A single panel system is mounted on the roof of the toilet block adjacent to the newly opened Crocodile Swamp. This is primarily used for hand washing.

The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, commonly known as the National Trust, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and independent National Trust for Scotland. The Trust is proud of what has been achieved over the last 126 years and is determined to maintain those high standards of conservation, stewardship and curatorial care for which it has been recognised throughout the world. Its achievements have enabled the general public and the Trust’s members and visitors to enjoy and appreciate the countryside, coastline, gardens, historic buildings and collections, all of which encapsulate so much of the history of England, Wales and Northern Ireland. There is a duty to tell that history in a complete, balanced and accurate way, and without judgement. The National Trust continues as a guardian of the past, and for the future, to uphold its duty to maintain and enhance what has been entrusted to its care. We are very proud to have been working with the National Trust for a number of years in Cornwall and across the United Kingdom. Solar Water Heating is a very cost effective renewable deployment which has proved and easy fit for the Trust across a number of sites. The panels were installed at both Trengwaiten tea-rooms & Glendurgan Gardens in Cornwall, each installed to blend in with the environment causing as little aesthetic disruption thereby going unnoticed. Solar water heating reduces our dependency on expensive and polluting fossil fuels. Solar energy causes no pollution at all, thus reducing our overall carbon emissions and the embodied energy of the equipment itself is recovered within two years of installation.

D H Solar Engineering installed a (x4) panel In-Roof solar water heating system which was mounted on the main house roof. Aesthetics for the roof line were important so the way the panels were mounted needed to compliment the building. An In-Roof mounted system was chosen so the panels sat nearly flush with the roof tiles. This made the installation look to be integrated within the roof profiles as opposed to an add-on. Installing In-Roof further protected the back of the panel from wind chill to ensure more of the generating heat was used  instead of being lost to atmosphere. The heat output from the four panels heated a 300 L hot water cylinder for use by the householders. Once this cylinder is hot the surplus heat is then directed to supplement the swimming pool. The result is to offset the oil that would otherwise be consumed to achieve the same thing, only it is now replaced by the light.

Celtic Renewable Energy, Launceston, Cornwall designed and installed a Thermosolar Solar Water Heating system for The Queens Hotel, Penzzance. This is a 70 bedroom hotel overlooking the Promenade in Penzance, Cornwall. Previously using  two Hoval boilers to heat the water for bedrooms, kitchen and the laundry. System comprised of (x14) LSP20+ Premium Commercial solar collectors configured in two banks of seven on the fourth story  roof of the hotel. These panels serve (x2) 500 L pre-heat cylinders, which in turn serve the Hoval boilers. Each cylinder is fitted with a stratification pump to run one hour in 24 for legionella protection. All the panels had to be craned to the top of the building and the hot water cylinders taken in through a specially “modified” window opening at the rear of the building The solar water heating system is fully automated with a sophisticated digital controller to ensure optimum operation at all times, even during low light levels there will be solar gain to reduce the hotel’s energy costs. The installation process took just four days to complete and interruption to hotel guests was  able to be kept to an absolute minimum during this time. During the first year of operation the total energy collected was measured at over 18,000 kWh, making a valuable contribution to the hot water supply to the hotel. The decision to install a solar water heating system was in line with The Queens Hotel’s overall continuing commitment to environmental issues and energy conservation, for example, all of the light bulbs throughout the building had already been replaced with low energy bulbs. Many other measures are actively taken each day to improve the carbon footprint of the hotel. Celtic Renewable Energy believe that green credentials need to be recognised, especially in the tourist industry, and with this aim we provided an interactive display board with information about the solar system. This is situated in the main hotel reception area and visitors are able to use the remote controllers to discover just how efficient the system is and to view operating data. These remote controls do not upset the system program and are easy to use and understand. Celtic Renewable Energy offer this facility at all their installations within the tourism sector.