Living with Solar Hot Water in Maine
March 8, 2011
“Yeah, but solar doesn’t work very well in Maine I bet.”
“At least some of your hot water comes from the sun, but….”
These are some of the comments I get when mentioning that my hot water comes from our solar hot water system that we installed here in late 2008. Now, what really gets people’s attention is the fact that we haven’t used our boiler at all for over eighteen months! Whoah! Are we some kind of radical back-to-the-land, off-gridder wannabees? Uh, no. We live in the suburbs – well, as close as you can get to such a thing in Maine – and we simply are taking energy independence seriously. We are getting our house OFF of fossil fuels and I’m living proof, here to say that it is possible.
The Demand Side of the Equation
Those of you familiar with the peak oil* conversation know that there is simply no combination of known technologies that can do for American society what cheap fossil fuels have done for us, at the level they’ve done it. We are going to have to re-design everything to work really well on little or no fossil fuels, period. Some people call this “energy descent” or “powerdown.” I like the thing that Rob Hopkins says that goes something like “a future with less fossil fuels could actually be preferable to a present with lots of fossil fuels.” In other words, instead of being scared of an “energy scarce” future, let’s assume that we can apply our ingenuity to living well with less energy to start with. THEN, we can think about the supply side of the equation…
What does this mean in your home? How much hot water do you need? Laundry probably does not need hot, or even warm water; we do ours with cold and everything comes out wicked clean but some people like warm/hot laundry water. Dishwashers do like a bit of hot water (but can make their own using electricity – still energy). Showers are a biggie. Most people, myself included, really appreciate a hot shower. How many do we need in a week? How long are we in there? More importantly, how many gallons per minute is your shower head? We’ve been able to go to a .5 (that’s right: one-half) gallon per minute shower head and it rocks. Seriously. I get to take long hot showers from our solar hot water system that last 10 minutes and use only 5 gallons off the top of our super-insulated tank. The same shower on an “old” shower head could have used as much as 30 gallons! Not everyone needs to shower every day, but that’s a choice each person will need to come to on their own.
Let it suffice to say, my family has ratcheted down the demand side of the equation.
The Supply Side of the Equation: The Sun
So, now that we’re not hot water hogs, we’ve realized that about 90% of our true hot water needs are being met by the sun. That is a huge percentage compared to other solar hot water systems that are simply “pre-heats” for an oil or gas boiler. Note that our solar hot water system is NOT tied to any fossil fuel appliance whatsoever. We start with the sun, let it heat water in a super-insulated Marathon tank which holds the heat for a long time and, if we absolutely, positively want a few more degrees of heat than the sun has seen fit to bestow, we buy a bit of electricity (wind/hydro flavor) from Central Maine Power to “top up” the temperature in the tank a little bit. My family of three is absolutely ecstatic with this system and we only have 25 evacuated tubes on the roof. We often install 30-60 tubes (depending on need) for clients who might not want to watch the demand side of things as closely as we do.
The other strategy I should share is that we look at the weather forecast and make some plans accordingly. I know that I can plan on a 100% solar bubble bath for my little boy on the evenings we’ve had full sun and never have to flip on the “boosters.” I can give him a tub anytime he needs it, but with a little planning, we can avoid any outside inputs. I might even take a shower that night if I see that it’s going to be cloudy for a couple of days. Anyway, we’re way more in tune with what the sun has to offer us because it’s fun and educational for my family to work this way.
The bottom line is that solar hot water works really well in Maine and we’ve been living with it exclusively for over two years. Just because we’re not in Arizona, doesn’t mean solar isn’t economically viable. We no longer buy oil. How’s that for success?
Warm Regards (and Showers),
*Remember, “peak oil” doesn’t mean we’re “running out.” It means the era of cheap and easy-to-get oil is coming to an end.
