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Show Thursday, October 4, 1979 Page 11 they're Sold On Solar Houses In declaring October "Energy Month" Mon-th" this week. Gov. Scott Matheson noted that Utah- blessed with resources resour-ces of gas, coal, shale, oil and abundant abun-dant sunshine- is destined to play an important role in the nation's search for domestic sources of energy. The governor is probably correct, but for now Utah residents rank far behind other states in the use of alternate energy sources for home use. According to the Utah Energy Office Of-fice in Salt Lake City, Utah ranks a dismal 47th in per capita solar homes. In Park City, local builder Jim Doilney has done pioneer work in the realm of solar construction- a task made more difficult because solar system construction is still a very infant in-fant industry in the state. A report on the two solar homes Doilney has built: At the construction site of his nearly finished home on Moray Court in Holiday Ranch, Jim Doilney explains the passive solar systems that will supply over half the annual heating demands of the home. "As mass increases so does heat storing capacity and the more constant home temperatures remain. This is why the trombe wall is 12-inch thick filled cinderblock and why the living room floor is slab rock, layered underneath by gravel and insulation," says Doilney. He is standing at the southern exposure of the home, the side that will receive the most amount of winter sunlight and therefore the side designed to convert sunlight into heat. Except for the two black trombe wall sections on this southern wall, the house is of conventional appearance. "There are many types of solar energy," continues Doilney. "Wind, biomass and photovalic cells are all forms of solar energy, but most people associate solar energy with the active and passive systems used in the two solar houses I've built. Active systems require another energy source, like electricity, to operate heat exchangers exchang-ers and thermastatic switches; passive pas-sive systems are more wholly self-operating." self-operating." Doilney's Moray Ct. home uses two passive mass-and-glass heat collectors: col-lectors: the trombe wall and the living room design. In addition there is a glass fronted fireplace that blows warmed air into the living room area. Cold outside air is drawn by electric fan through pipes that pass over the fire; the heated air emerges from a vent in the mantle. Serving as a back-up system to these exotic heating arrangements is a conventional conven-tional gas furnace. A trombe wall is a high-mass wall that absorbs heat from sunlight, then radiates that heat to living space. In the case of the Doilney home, trombe walls form the outside walls of south-ended rooms on both the first and second floors. Between the trombe sections is a high expanse of glass, split by a chimney, which looks into the high-ceiled living room. On the outside, the cinderblock trombe sections are painted black to absorb light rays. Glass thermal panes, spaced a few inches from the cinderblock surgace, work to create a greenhouse heating effect: Light passing through the glass heats the massive trombe wall, which in turn heats the air space between wall and glass to temperatures around 150 degrees F. The interior side of the trombe sections are drywalled and painted like any conventional house wall. (fil I :f '' 1 Iff I If'i ;Hi . ,',- - -ft - - ! - - ' j- . i . , . V I , - s. rf' W ,"' . fl ""t 4 vqfmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmMmmm iWinmmmiiMlwf' lsws' t.,mmm iiimmmjm! ---- jjCTj IS jmaiMMnK-Wirrirn nu.,n....i.ij.iu.i.a.u J "A convection cycle is set up whereby heated air rises to the top of each wall section and passes through holes into the house to heat it," says. Doilney, pointing to three square holes near the ceiling of one of the rooms backed by a trombe wall. "Through the holes near the floor, colder, heavier, air is drawn outside the room, and passed over the hot trombe wall, re-emerging again as warmed air from the top vents." The living room works on a similar glass and mass system: Light enters through the living room window area, heats the slab rock floor and heat is radiated into the house. Heat radiated down through the floor warms air carrying pipes beneath. The pipes vent the warmed air back into the living space. Now comes the really ingenious part of Doilney's passive system. On sunny winter days the trombe walls and the living room floors would continue to store heat as long as the sun shined; to prevent that heat from re-radiating back outside at night or in cloudy conditions the vented trombe sections have to be insulated from the thermal glass. This is accomplished by lowering a metallic-sheened envelope curtain between the cinder blocks and the thermal glass. Each wall section has such a curtain tightly rolled at the top. When unrolled, the envelope curtain inflates in the hot air space, effectively sealing its own guide rails. In summer the curtains act as a cooling device: The metallic surfaces reflect sun rays, preventing the trombe walls from heating. Thick insulation throughout the house and double or triple paned windows help keep the house temperature tempera-ture constant and the solar systems effective. Any excess heat that the house may build up can be vented through interior ceiling vents. "The entire passive system is effective and aesthetically pleasing in its simplicity... but this design can't be mass produced, each home must be custom built according to its particular particu-lar environment," notes Doilney. "Solar energy is going to attract a lot of creative people but just creativity and interest aren't going to bring success. A lot of people I've contacted in the business are interested in the concepts but don't have the expertise to put it together." Doilney speaks from experience. To avoid some of the mistakes he made on his first solar construction, Doilney hired Thermal Technology Corporation Corpora-tion of Snowmass, Colorado, as consultants on his Moray Court home. "That first active solar home I built in Prospector Square works well now but I had a few bugs to remove," admits Doilney. When building that first solar home he discovered that expert advice on solar construction was not easily obtained in Utah. "The first guy I hired to help me with the project knew less about the system than I did," remembers Doilney. Doilney's active solar house was purchased by Don and Jamie Hooker. The active system in the Hooker home relies on a liquid two-loop system. One loop of pipes, carrying Prestone II because of its high boiling temperature and resistance to Utah's freezing winter temperatures, collects col-lects radiant heat produced by solar panels on the home's sharply angled roof. The anti-freeze loop, in turn, heats a water loop in a basement exchange system. Heated water is Don Hooker's active solar home in t irHi 1 -j I r i . '2'U . 1 ? x f T i .u All ; vi ' , Sir if ' t ' : uOr win h ' li : n 7VJ stored in a 350-plus-gallon tank in the basement and is used for hot water and space heating. For space heating, hot water pipes winding through a regular gas heater duct act like a car radiator to heat the home whenever the heater fan is switched on by thermostat. The water loop also is heated whenever the Hookers build a fire. An extension of the water loop is plumbed around the Hooker fireplace to pick up additional heat. Electrically Electrical-ly operated thermostats control pumps that circulate the liquid. The pumps run when the thermostats sense that there is heat to be obtained from the solar panels or the fireplace. When no heat is being produced, at night in the case of the panels, the thermostats shut off to prevent stored hot water from circulating the entire loop and unnecessarily dissipating heat. The loops are sectioned so that the panels or fireplace loops can be separately operated or so that stored hot water can be used for space and water heating when the rest of the system is off. Conventional gas water and space heating devices provide backup. "The system has been providing all my hot water since I moved in (May)," reports Hooker. "Heat collected from the solar panels can provide 75 to 95 percent of any hot water needs and the hydro-hearth can provide another 40 percent of my space heating needs." "The real secret to the system, though, is the insulation," continued Hooker. "We have double and triple paned windows, wall insulation is at least R 20 and 14 to 16 inches of roof insulation have a R 38 value, and the front door has a magnetic seal like a refrigerator door to prevent heat from escaping." Prospector Village. Jim Doilney strikes a passive pose behind The between - "The few problems I've had include leaks in the water loop, thermostat problems with the hydro-hearth and heat escaping at night through the greenhouse (the passive portion of Hooker's home heating)." Leaks in the water system have since been sealed and the filling of planter boxes in the greenhouse increased the room's mass so that temperatures remain more constant, eliminating the freezing and burning of plants. Hooker and Doilney believe they have an answer to the hydro-hearth thermostat problem. his solar house in Holiday Ranch. the - loop heat exchanger in Don Hooker's house. Utility Companies and Tax Breaks With Utah's cold temperatures and the rising cost of heating oil and natural gas, one would think there would be universal support for solar energy systems. While there is Federal support in the form of tax credits, state support is sorely lacking. Says Kerry Faigle, the Utah Energy Office solar specialist, "Utah ranks very low in the number of solar energy homes being built. Mostly, its because up to now we've had very cheap electric and natural gas rates compared with other states. Also, there is a natural conservatism in Utah that works as a barrier to exploring alternate energy systems. But this has to change. Since 1973 utility rates in Utah have been increasing 20 percent per year and I predict with future OPEC increases and the soaring cost to construct and maintain electric plants that utility prices will increase an average 25 percent per year." Such a prospect makes solar systems eminently feasible according to Faigle. "Suppose you buy a house on a 30-year loan plan," explained Faigle. "Your loan payments won't inflate during that time but your utility prices will. At an annual 25 percent increase that means a $25 monthly utility bill will be $5,368.77 by the time of your final loan payment. If you had bought a $20,000 solar system to begin with you wouldn't have the utility bills to worry about. Of course salaries will inflate over that 30 year period, but how many people get a 25 percent annual salary increase?" "For $20,000, speaking in ball park figures, you could install a two-tank storage system in Park City that could provide both heating and cooling needs," continued Faigle. "Each tank would be an insulated 20-foot cube filled with water. One tank could be frozen in winter and have air blown over it in summer to cool the house; the other tank would store water heated by solar collectors, providing winter time space and water heating needs." Faigle says such methods are not way out, but feasible and proven, and Utah "has to get on the ball" in the imi ?,.! I J solar game. "Last year I wrote tax legislation asking that credit be given to home owners that install solar systems but the bill never got out of the debate stage," says Faigle. "This year we've got a legislative package that offers a $1,000 credit to installers of solar systems. But the coal, oil and utility lobbies in Utah will make passage an uphill fight." Don Hooker has already experienced one fight with Mountain Fuel and Utah Power and Light. "Mountain Fuel has continued to send me bills over $20 since May though the only fuel I've burned has been that consumed by my pilot lights," says Hooker. "The fuel company made the mistake of estimating what my fuel bill should be based on averages for a 3,200-square-foot home. I've called them on it several times and they have promised several times to refund me. But I had received no refunds after the third month so I simply stopped paying my bills until Ifigure we are even. "What if a consumer had refused to pay his gas bills for three months? His gas would have been shut off, that's what." Hooker's experience with Utah Power and Light was equally absurd. Because the home was an experimental experiment-al venture, Doilney had installed two meters on the home, one of which registered the consumption of electricity electri-city by the solar thermostatic control system. The power company one day turned off all of Hooker's electricity because it was against company policy to have two meters. Hooker offered to pay for the extra meter but the company still refused because of the extra service required. Though Hooker pointed out that the company had just wasted two service calls, one to remove the extra meter and another to turn back on service, Utah Power and Light stuck to their guns. Despite such hassles, homeowners should take to heart the concluding words of Faigle: "I think the time has come when every new structure in Utah should be built only after extremely special consideration is given to the possibility of incorporating incorporat-ing solar power." |