There Oughta Be A Law – Solar Thermal On Every Home
People typically don’t think of installing solar thermal when they build or retrofit their homes. Most people just don’t follow renewable energy news and have just have never thought of it. (Just like most of us wouldn’t know to build our homes to be earthquake-proof either if it wasn’t in our building code.)
[social_buttons]
A requirement to add solar thermal into building codes can be the best driver of change that has benefits for everybody, by reducing fossil energy use by from 60% to 80%.
The ideal setup is when a homeowner has a natural gas-heated water, used not just for hot water but to heat a radiant flooring system. In that case as much as 80% in energy reductions are possible in a sunny climate. You would keep the gas furnace for the remaining 20% of water heating. If you only need hot water for non-heating needs, the least it would do is reduce your gas use about 60%.
(You could also use a hybrid system to get to 100% clean energy, by using electricity from a solar array to heat the remaining water to supplement the solar hot water system.)
Israel implemented a building code almost 30 years ago requiring solar thermal. Now over 80% of the households in Israel have drastically reduced electricity bills because pre-warmed water on their roofs cuts the need for energy to heat the remainder.
The Australian state of Victoria added such a requirement in 2005. All new buildings must include either a solar hot water heater (or, in drought-ridden Australia; a rain water cistern). This year, that was extended to cover all renovations as well, so now the law covers more than 40,000 homes.
China has solar thermal on virtually every rooftop, and now leads the world in manufacturing solar thermal systems. Three out of four collectors are produced and installed in the People’s Republic. Its national market grew by a constant rate of 28% in recent years.
Within the last two to three years, more nations are beginning to include solar thermal requirements into building codes. Hawaii added a solar thermal mandate for all new buildings to begin in 2010. It is sensible legislation.
Replacing dangerous and expensive fossil energy with cheap solar thermal heating should be just as much a part of the building code as requiring that your house won’t kill you in an earthquake.
Image: Flikr user kkplus
Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
Our Latest EVObsession Video
CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.
IIRC Hawaii already has the regs in place for this one… I agree that if it can be done then go for it, but we don’t need a code that rams it down our throats.
Lets start with the building codes first – in most of the US- They suck !
also building materials here in the USA – suck !
I had my parents bring me reno electrical boxes from Canada for use here in the USA…
Nothing built here in the USA is built to last.
IIRC Hawaii already has the regs in place for this one… I agree that if it can be done then go for it, but we don’t need a code that rams it down our throats.
Lets start with the building codes first – in most of the US- They suck !
also building materials here in the USA – suck !
I had my parents bring me reno electrical boxes from Canada for use here in the USA…
Nothing built here in the USA is built to last.
Regs should just require minimum structural standards and Net Zero Energy so they could build any design that didn’t fall down or consume more grid power and/or gas than was produced. Partial exemptions/subsidies could be allowed for unusually constrained circumstances. Banks should be required/subsidized to provide zero interest loans for the energy related features that are reviewed for efficacy at the time of the loan. Then we need DOE to design a cheap BIPV/T insulated roofing panel system.
Regs should just require minimum structural standards and Net Zero Energy so they could build any design that didn’t fall down or consume more grid power and/or gas than was produced. Partial exemptions/subsidies could be allowed for unusually constrained circumstances. Banks should be required/subsidized to provide zero interest loans for the energy related features that are reviewed for efficacy at the time of the loan. Then we need DOE to design a cheap BIPV/T insulated roofing panel system.
I like this idea where it makes sense.
Unfortunately, here in Minnesota it doesn’t. For about eight months a year we have improper weather conditions for solar heating and power.
Wind power, on the other hand, is almost constantly available. A windmill on every rooftop would be far more productive.
I like this idea where it makes sense.
Unfortunately, here in Minnesota it doesn’t. For about eight months a year we have improper weather conditions for solar heating and power.
Wind power, on the other hand, is almost constantly available. A windmill on every rooftop would be far more productive.
Ah, yes. The central meme of the environmental movement — let’s force people to do the things we would like them to do. There is never any accounting for the inherent value in letting folks have the freedom to do whatever the Hell they want to do. We must all worship Gaia rather than kill her with our invisible, odorless, CO2 that is warming the Earth although every piece of data we have shows that CO2 increases follow warming, rather than cause warming.
Ah, yes. The central meme of the environmental movement — let’s force people to do the things we would like them to do. There is never any accounting for the inherent value in letting folks have the freedom to do whatever the Hell they want to do. We must all worship Gaia rather than kill her with our invisible, odorless, CO2 that is warming the Earth although every piece of data we have shows that CO2 increases follow warming, rather than cause warming.
Mr. Scott,
How much do you get paid to troll the web to write that stuff? OK forget about CO2 levels for a moment how about making everyone do it so that our sons and daughters don’t have to get maimed fighting in some wasteland to defend our oil supplies? The reasons for being efficient are to save money, increase distributed power, reduce the level of toxins in the environment, reduce our dependency of foreign oil and reduce CO2. Stop trying to force everyone to your level of ignorance. Don’t Palin us!
Mr. Scott,
How much do you get paid to troll the web to write that stuff? OK forget about CO2 levels for a moment how about making everyone do it so that our sons and daughters don’t have to get maimed fighting in some wasteland to defend our oil supplies? The reasons for being efficient are to save money, increase distributed power, reduce the level of toxins in the environment, reduce our dependency of foreign oil and reduce CO2. Stop trying to force everyone to your level of ignorance. Don’t Palin us!
@Michael Scott
Relax, nobody needs to be forced to do anything green really. If you like to use more energy than necessary to do the same job, I am sure you can afford it.
A far better way is to get some of the needless restrictions of building codes off our backs at least for those of us that want to move on and know how to do most of the project work. If I could, I would do both the solar thermal and the PV mostly myself with a little help although the north east climate limits us some. I get darned irritated when told I shouldn’t have done this or that on my own house, the codes seem to protect the contractor and labor union interests.
Now if I was getting my water preheated and electricity costs driven far down, a lot of neighbors in very similar homes might want to follow the same path. Wouldn’t you want to save some $ if it made sense? I’m always checking out other folks projects too to see whats worth doing.
Right now the gov plan to do up homes doesn’t help me any, it helps the contractors and Joe the plumber do it for me but I don’t want to pay for that. I want to put my sweat equity into that and keep most of the savings for family and help others in return.
And besides, you are completely wrong about CO2, it is a green house gas as is water vapor and methane and many others, but the devil is in the details. You can read up on it instead of parroting those Fox News idiots like Beck and Hannity, who have never done any research themselves but just spin out the same old lies fed to them by the oil interests. Yes the oil interests really do spends lots of money putting out disinformation through the same channels the tobacco companies used. Some of the denier people also worked on the tobacco PR.
By the way, you do know that without any greenhouse warming, this planet would be stone cold, all the ground heat would escape back into space. The CO2 at about 280ppm has served us well for eons, keeping the greenhouse warming to about the right level. Doubling the CO2 to >500ppm as will eventually happen will much increase the warming, just as reducing it below 280ppm would cool it. Personally I would rather the environment stay about the same as when I was born 50 years ago.
@Michael Scott
Relax, nobody needs to be forced to do anything green really. If you like to use more energy than necessary to do the same job, I am sure you can afford it.
A far better way is to get some of the needless restrictions of building codes off our backs at least for those of us that want to move on and know how to do most of the project work. If I could, I would do both the solar thermal and the PV mostly myself with a little help although the north east climate limits us some. I get darned irritated when told I shouldn’t have done this or that on my own house, the codes seem to protect the contractor and labor union interests.
Now if I was getting my water preheated and electricity costs driven far down, a lot of neighbors in very similar homes might want to follow the same path. Wouldn’t you want to save some $ if it made sense? I’m always checking out other folks projects too to see whats worth doing.
Right now the gov plan to do up homes doesn’t help me any, it helps the contractors and Joe the plumber do it for me but I don’t want to pay for that. I want to put my sweat equity into that and keep most of the savings for family and help others in return.
And besides, you are completely wrong about CO2, it is a green house gas as is water vapor and methane and many others, but the devil is in the details. You can read up on it instead of parroting those Fox News idiots like Beck and Hannity, who have never done any research themselves but just spin out the same old lies fed to them by the oil interests. Yes the oil interests really do spends lots of money putting out disinformation through the same channels the tobacco companies used. Some of the denier people also worked on the tobacco PR.
By the way, you do know that without any greenhouse warming, this planet would be stone cold, all the ground heat would escape back into space. The CO2 at about 280ppm has served us well for eons, keeping the greenhouse warming to about the right level. Doubling the CO2 to >500ppm as will eventually happen will much increase the warming, just as reducing it below 280ppm would cool it. Personally I would rather the environment stay about the same as when I was born 50 years ago.
@JJ – When my husband built our house 15 years ago, I was horrified by the expense of the earthquake proofing (a freeways-worth of rebar!) and even the doublepane windows required by California’s Title 22 Energy Efficiency requirements.
I was ignorant then.
Now I know we are safe in an earthquake. But even more I really appreciate our MUCH lower energy bills. We have saved more than we spent, by a long shot. I can see how it is that California has a carbon footprint like Europe, half that of the average US state – its the building codes!
This is a great ideal and like a few people here have already said we really do not need it rammed down our throats. I am not a greeny by any means but I do heat my water for bathing and heat with a trough mirror heater. I do it for the cost savings and for the fact that I made it myself. To get people to act upon things they have to be in pain. If our utilities were twice what they are at this time solar would be very popular. Just my two cents.
Themally yours
Lee,
This is a great ideal and like a few people here have already said we really do not need it rammed down our throats. I am not a greeny by any means but I do heat my water for bathing and heat with a trough mirror heater. I do it for the cost savings and for the fact that I made it myself. To get people to act upon things they have to be in pain. If our utilities were twice what they are at this time solar would be very popular. Just my two cents.
Themally yours
Lee,
@JJ – When my husband built our house 15 years ago, I was horrified by the expense of the earthquake proofing (a freeways-worth of rebar!) and even the doublepane windows required by California’s Title 22 Energy Efficiency requirements.
I was ignorant then.
Now I know we are safe in an earthquake. But even more I really appreciate our MUCH lower energy bills. We have saved more than we spent, by a long shot. I can see how it is that California has a carbon footprint like Europe, half that of the average US state – its the building codes!
Here you go Susan… How about a stealth heater that’s also a ridge vent for your house…
Gary of “Build it Solar” has this up on his blog.
http://www.builditsolar.com/Experimental/RidgeVentHeater.htm
Here you go Susan… How about a stealth heater that’s also a ridge vent for your house…
Gary of “Build it Solar” has this up on his blog.
http://www.builditsolar.com/Experimental/RidgeVentHeater.htm
We provide homeowners with a free home energy audit and show them how their $$ is spent when they pay their energy bill. It’s amazing how much home and business owners can save if they simply used solar to heat their hot water. For most, it represents 30% of their monthly bill. We are “do-it-yourselfers” so we also provide homeowners with the ability to purchase a system to install their self. Check out http://www.GuardianSolarLLC.com for more info.
Deb
We provide homeowners with a free home energy audit and show them how their $$ is spent when they pay their energy bill. It’s amazing how much home and business owners can save if they simply used solar to heat their hot water. For most, it represents 30% of their monthly bill. We are “do-it-yourselfers” so we also provide homeowners with the ability to purchase a system to install their self. Check out http://www.GuardianSolarLLC.com for more info.
Deb
Sup great entry. Did you tivo last nights hanity and colmes? That’s some great writing material lol. Have a good one 🙂
Sup great entry. Did you tivo last nights hanity and colmes? That’s some great writing material lol. Have a good one 🙂