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Residential Solutions

What you need: Some Sun and a Bit of Storage Space

In order to benefit from the sun's energy, all you need is sun and a place to store its heat.

Does your building receive enough sun to heat your solar collectors? Inspect the parts of your property that receive the most sun and the most out of the way (normally the roof):

• Is this area shaded at any time of the day by trees, hills or buildings to the south?
• Is it flat or south-facing? (A roof can be up to 35-40 degrees off south and still produce adequate heat)
  

Do you have some space available inside your building for a hot water tank in which to store the sun's heat? The simplest and cheapest way to proceed is simply to install a solar hot water tank beside your existing hot water tank to pre-heat the water going into the existing tank.

• Single-Family Residences: Do you have enough space to add another tank of about the same size as your existing tank?
• Multi-Family Buildings¹:
  
• If your hot water currently comes from a centralized unit shared by all of the units, how much extra space is available nearby for solar hot water storage?
• If each unit has its own hot water heater, do they have enough space to add another hot water tank of the same size? Is that space accessible for running insulated hot water pipes from the solar collectors?

One of our sales representatives will be pleased to review these issues with you in order to insure that your solar installation is effective and fully secure.

¹ The government grant programs normally distinguish between small and large multi-residential buildings, and give different kinds of grants. "Small" multi-residential buildings are 3 stories or less, and have fewer than 6 separate units.