Gone Solar

We now have the classiest looking house on Naramata Road. In our effort to reduce energy consumption (and save money), we have installed a solar hot water system. Don't ask me how it works, I only know that when I turn on the hot water tap, there had better be hot water. Tim on the other hand, can explain it in intricate detail but it is kind of like asking him how his bees are doing. He gets very excited and can go on and on and on (you all know how he is).


We had to have a second hot water tank installed and it is pretty high tech with a digital display and pressure valves. Tim is constantly running downstairs and checking the digital display to see how many kwh we have saved, what the temperature is in the solar collector and in the tank. He also said to let everyone know that the purple pipes carry the glycol to the solar panels (it is the glycol that heats the water) and the white pipes are what feed the regular hot water tank. So, we save money because the regular hot water tank is being fed water that is all ready heated from the solar hot water tank and the regular hot water tank doesn't need to use electricity to heat the water up. Yesterday it was 15 degrees outside and the solar collector was heating up the water to 110 degrees. In the summer, it will heat up the water to over 200 degrees (that's degrees Celcius!) It's a good thing we live in the sunniest place in Canada.