Cost
Because of the many variables at each site installation costs can vary significantly. Expect installed prices to start at $10,000. For incorporating a new high efficiency heating boiler installed with a solar heating system contact us.
Click the play button on the flash movie below to watch the video "Payback for Solar Heating".
Incentives
1. Residential renewable energy tax credit
2. Federal incentives for renewables and efficiency
Payment Options
Alascorp accepts Major Credit Cards
Economics
This information is from the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service
Solar energy systems are still fairly expensive, but with the tax credit and the ever increasing costs of fuel, solar water heaters have never been more economic or interesting than they are in mid-2008. Although it is certainly advisable and possible to home build solar energy collectors, these collectors would not qualify for the tax credit. That is because the tax credit also has the stipulation that the solar collectors used in a residential system must be certified by a national testing certification agency. The system molded in the collector sizing example (Table 2) is a certified system tested at the Florida Solar Energy Center.
One must have reasonable expectations about performance. Solar radiation is at its minimum in Alaska during November, December and January. This does not mean that no energy can be extracted from the short duration and low sun angle of the winter sun- it can, but the amount of heat energy gained per dollar invested in the system falls short. During these months a back-up system is necessary. But an active solar hot water heating system is practical in several regions in Alaska where fuel prices are high and climate is good. Why does solar water heater work when solar space heaters won't? We use hot water all year long not just in the winter. So more solar heat is available for hot water heating than for space heating: it is more useful all year round, since we need hot water in summer, but don't need to heat our homes when the sunlight and heat are plentiful.
Recently at the Cold Climate Housing Research Center three different active solar water heaters were installed on the roof as a testing option to demonstrate their performance and make this information available to the public. This is a major step forward in promoting and proving up solar water heaters for Alaska.
One of the systems is an evacuated tube collector type system and as you can see from Figure Two, the efficiency of the three main solar thermal technologies is really a function of solar radiation and ambient temperature. This fact should be very strongly considered depending on what kind of heating you need to do. For instance, Figure two shows clearly that if you want to heat water to temperatures from 10° to 50°C above the ambient, which is mostly the case for when solar water heating is efficient in Alaska , a flat plate collector is the best choice.
However evacuated tube type systems are best for circumstances when more than 50°C above ambient is the application of choice. This seems to infer that evacuated tubes are best for very cold temperatures, but since very cold temperatures in Interior Alaska also mean short solar periods, the ultimate annual performance may not be that crucially advantageous with an evacuated tube collector. The true productivity from evacuated tube system remains to be seen in our climate as none has really been tested. That is the purpose of the new installations at the Cold Climate Housing Research Center.
Active Domestic Hot Water System |
||
|---|---|---|
| Location | Fairbanks | Alaska |
| Water Volume/collector area | 1.50 | gallons/ft2 |
| Fuel | Gas | |
| Efficiency of fuel usage | 70.00 | % |
| Daily hot water usage | 60 | gallons |
| Water set temperature | 125.0 | F |
| Environmental temperature | 67.3 | F |
| UA of auxilary storage tank | 0.00 | Btu/hr-F |
| Pipe heat loss | No | |
| Collector-store heat exchange | Yes | |
|
14.000 | lb/hr-ft2 |
|
0.55 | |
Flat-Plate Collector |
|
|
| Number of collector panels | 2 | |
| Collector panel area | 32.30 | ft2 |
| FR*UL (Test slope) | 0.870 | Btu/hr-ft2-F |
| FR*TAU*ALPHA (Test intercept) | 0.730 | |
| Collector slope | 50 | degrees |
| Collector azimuth (South=0) | 0 | degrees |
| Incidence angle modifier calculation | Value(s) | |
| Collector Flowrate/area | 14.000 | lb/hr-ft2 |
| Collector Fluid specific heat | 0.84 | Btu/lb-F |
| Modify test vaulues | Yes | |
|
11.000 | lb/hr0ft2 |
|
1.00 | Btu |
Table 2. An FChart Computer Simulation of an Active Domestic Solar Water
Heating Systemo for Fairbanks, Alaska.
Figures
Figure 2:
Figure 2. Efficiency of the three main solar thermal technologies as a
function of insolation and ambient temperature.
