Sunset Hill House Installs Solar Hot Water System
Heating water is one of the greatest energy loads of inns, and the Sunset Hill House is no exception, with 21 rooms with private baths in the main building (and 8 in the annex!) , plus a fine dining restaurant, tavern and banquet facility. The original system designed several decades before, provided oil fired hot water from the steam heat boiler – a good system in winter, and a disaster in summer as the inn’s heat system could not be turned off. “we’d be running air conditioners and have heat coming off the radiators on a 90-degree day – it was just crazy” says innkeeper Nancy Henderson. They sought and installed an 52 zone state of the art heat system for the inn based on high efficiency propane and concurrently replaced the hot water system. Since the greatest need for hot water corresponds with the height of the summer season, solar hot water was a natural fit.
ReVision Energy, of Maine and NH, designed the solar hot water system consisting of fifteen American-made flat plate solar hot water collectors which heat an American SolarTechnics 650 gallon storage tank. On a bright summer day, the system will produce over 420,000 BTUs of clean solar energy, enough to provide close to 100% of the Inn’s domestic hot water demand for showering, laundry, dishwashing and the like. Backup hot water is provided by a Phoenix direct fired propane hot water heater. The system is not easily seen from the road, and many guests ask where the panels are when told that their hot water comes from the sun. The display at the front door is Lon Henderson’s favorite part of the system – it shows the heat coming off the panels, and the heat in the storage tank. “Its great – we actually have to add COLD water to the water going to the rooms!”. The average temperature in the holding tank is about 145-degrees, and the temperature coming off the panels can easily top 200-degrees.
With a predicted fuel savings of $7,360/year, the system is expected to pay for itself within 2 years after Sunset Hill takes advantage of all state and federal incentives. Combined with the heat system, Sunset Hill House will replace over 500MM BTUs from oil with high efficiency propane and solar, and reduce carbon emissions by over 200 tons per year. “Investing in solar was a win-win for us,” says owner Nancy Henderson. “We are doing our part to support the natural beauty of this region, all while keeping our costs under control.”