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Commercial
Applications
With
creative financing, commercial solar thermal users can have payback
periods approaching zero years. If businesses borrow the money to cover
the capital cost of the solar thermal system, the energy savings
can be large enough to cover the loan payments. With a car wash, the load matches supply because people tend to wash cars on sunny days. There is a steady demand for hot water in apartments, and the most suitable installations are in buildings where the mechanical room and hot water equipment are in the penthouse so the solar collectors are installed in close proximity. In farming, hot water is used to clean equipment and provide radiant floor heating, while fish farms require warm water (18°C). The
agricultural sector has many excellent applications, such as dairy farms
that require hot water for cleaning milking equipment. A sick calf area
could benefit from radiant floor heating. On pig farms, the creep area
of the furrowing pens could be heated by radiant floor heating with
energy from the sun, and on a chicken farm a concrete floor with radiant
heat will benefit the poultry. The farm shop can use hot water for washups
and radiant floor heating can warm up the shop space. Fish farms, fish
hatcheries, and mushroom farms are also good applications. |
©2004 Nexus Solar Corporation.