Kalama Terrace

February 23, 2016

Solar Water Heating System Improvement Summary

A Kalama Terrace Board member called us in 2008 when the solar water heating system that was installed on their condo building did not reduce their propane bill. We monitored the solar system and fixed a problem with it, but the propane bill didn’t drop much. We finally monitored the hot water usage and found a huge leak.

When that was fixed, the propane bill dropped by $3,000 a month and the water bill was reduced by $1,000 a month. We then designed a monitoring system which was installed and alerts the manager and ECA when problems occur. The solar water heating system has reached its end of life in 2017 so we designed a heat pump system to replace the solar water heating system powered by solar electric panels.