Hello all, I recently received this testimonial from one of our Solargon 30 owners in northern Colorado.
Solar Hot Water Shed
"Our Solargon has been performing REALLY WELL.
Let's put it this way - the plumbing in the Solargon is filled with
water. I have never had to drain the water for fear of freezing, even when
we were in India for 6 months last year, because the Solargon doesn't freeze
inside. The system operates automatically and independently. The
solar water pump has been great, completely reliable. Also the solar power
system (P.V. is probably overkill for the structure, so that we only use about 10% of
the available battery power when we run lights, vacuum cleaner and a
refrigerator overnight."
"We
have solar hot water heating a 175 gallon storage tank. This heat is used
for hot water when we are there, and when we are not there it is used for the
two radiators we installed. It's enough to keep the interior from freezing even
in -30F weather. The passive solar input to the structure through the
south-facing windows also heats the interior on the many sunny days, and when
summer hot water production reaches the high temperature limit on the solar hot
water system, the excess hot water is pumped through 500 feet of PEX tubing
under the floor."
Where the antelope play....
"The interior temperature of the
cabin at the thermostat never goes below 45°F, to my knowledge (I set it at
45°F when we leave). This is entirely off-grid and with NO propane heating of
any kind, purely solar. We installed insulated window shades that cut the heat
loss from the non-south-facing windows, and better sealing of the doors has
helped as well."
"We have a 250 gallon propane tank
that provides propane to the stove and to the tank less water heater that backs
up the solar hot water. Since we filled that tank to 80% in 2010 (200
gallons), we have used ... 5 gallons. We're down to 78% from 80%."
" We cook on the wood stove when possible, and the solar hot water has almost
always been hot enough to never need the propane backup.
What can I say? It works as
near to perfectly as makes little difference."
Dr. Carrick Eggleston is a professor in the Department of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Wyoming.
Research
focuses on fundamental chemical processes at mineral oxide surfaces:
dissolution/growth, adsorption, electron transfer, and catalysis.
Current projects include microbially driven electron transfer to ferric
minerals during respiration, protein adsorption to mineral oxides and
redox-linked conformation change, microbial fuel cells, photochemical
processes in natural waters, and the use of abundant and inexpensive
minerals for photo catalysis into context of solar fuels.
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