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That’s Smart: GWU’s Solar Thermal System
It’s important to appreciate the little things in life: shelter, food, water…
But while we may appreciate all of these things, how much do people actually know about the roofs over their heads and the water from their sinks and showerheads?
Over the summer a local company, Skyline Innovations, teamed up with the George Washington University and installed three solar thermal systems on the roofs of GW’s residence halls Ivory Tower, Building JJ and 1959 E Street.
We spoke to Sophie Waskow from GW’s Office of Sustainability and Zach Axelrod, the CEO of Skyline, and got some more information about the water a good portion of GW student’s use when they take showers and do their laundry. The process developed by the team at Skyline makes it so that the water heater that would typical be of use to obtain hot water doesn’t even need to be turned on!
Skyline Innovations installed the systems at NO COST to the university and charges them for hot water at a discounted rate. Skyline has installed the system on other D.C. buildings and is currently expanding the business across the nation.
-Samantha Stone and Jason Calabretta
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On January 19th, 2012 at 11:38 am Cal Adams Said:
I’ve installed a unit for our home hot water. Ours is a flat plate type rather than evacuated tube. I just commissioned it in Sept of 2011 so we are just now getting to a point of seeing the increasing sun hours. We are very hopeful based on what we saw during the decline period from Sept to Jan.
On January 19th, 2012 at 1:47 pm Charlie Rybak Said:
Cal,
Do you know if/when your system will pay for itself, based on your early results?