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COMPANY HISTORY |
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Your Solar Home Inc. was founded on the principle to create a sustainable future with renewable energy products that could be integrated into the home, cottage or business.
The
idea began in September 2003 with a commercial horse farm
Kerrydale Stables Ltd. in the Muskoka, Ontario region. The owner of
Kerrydale Todd Kirkpatrick had a large energy bill during the 2002-2003 winter
season. The bill was the result of the long cold winter in Northern Ontario
where temperatures can hit -25 to -30 celsius.
Kerrydale Stables Ltd. was currently heating the main barn with 4 - 220
volt 5 kw construction heaters and the main viewing area and offices with
conventional baseboard heaters. Faced with a difficult problem, he setout to
locate a technology that would dramatically reduce his energy bill and continue
to provide a comfortable work environment for the staff, customers and horses.
He was then introduced through local solar dealer to Dr. Vladimir Nikiforov, a thermal scientist who specialized in large scale solar thermal air walls. Solar air heating systems had been around for around 30 years in a commercial format. The owner was then asked to produce a digital photograph of the facility, size of structure and current energy bill to Dr. Nikiforov.
Dr. Nikiforov met with Kerrydale over the next few weeks to evaluate his facility, budget and problem. He designed a proposal to accommodate Kerrydale's heating needs and provide and opportunity for hot water expansion.
The solar air collector was sized to be 71 sq meters in size- with two sections. A 35 square meter section on the south facing wall and and 36 square meter section on the south west facing wall. The total energy produced by the wall would be calculated at 22 KW in total. This is approximately the same energy produced by two small residential furnaces. Kerrydale has recorded and done extensive monitoring of the solar air heating system. We have recorded temperatures of 35 degrees celsius from the south wall in coldest winter months at -25 and colder. In the summer months for hot water heating we can obtain 50 plus celsius off the air collector. This makes supplementing hot water needs more than adequate.
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The south facing solar air collector was directly ducted to the main barn corridor, viewing room, central office, tack room and party room. A large fan rated at 700 cfm drives the air through 175 ft. of ductwork to air diffusers located throughout the building. A manual damper allows for heated air to ducted to either the main barn corridor for extreme weather conditions in the coldest months and half or full way to the offices, viewing room and tack store as the weather gets warmer during the fall or early spring months. Extra insulation was added to the attic space above the main barn hallway corridor to ensure that there would be minimum heat loss. The system went live in December 27, 2003 and immediately proved to be worth the investment. To date we have saved over approximately 40 % on our annual heating bill and that has translated into real dollars. We even got a credit from Ontario Hydro because our equal billing payment had been adjusted for the higher energy cost. The ROI (return on investment) for the system is about 5 years. Kerrydale was eligible for a REDI (Renewable Energy Deployment Initiative) grant which covered up to 25% of the cost of the total implementation making the payback even better. |
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The environmental benefit is also a great by product of implementing a solar air heating system. The system saves about 48 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year. The lifespan of the solar air heating system is 25 years plus and gives Kerrydale Stables Ltd. a lower energy bill and sustainable future.
THE SOLAR AIR COLLECTOR
The Kerrydale system took approximately six weeks to engineer and assemble.
During the installation process Todd Kirkpatrick and Dr. Nikiforov saw that
there could be a better way to engineer and install the air collector without
building a custom solar air collector for each project. This would allow for
rapid installation for both industrial and residential applications. An initial
prototype was created in steel that resembled a panel or standard 3 x 8 shape
with a two inch profile. The panel was self powered, with a built in fan and
external photo voltaic panel to drive the fan. After carefully reviewing the
initial prototype, 
the
two decided to build a second prototype in aluminum allowing for easier
handling and decreased cost. This product has the same features as the first
but with an integrated PV panel to drive the fan. A patent was filed during
this time as well. An initial production was created to meet early customer
demand and the two started working on a business plan. The product and company
was officially launched in March 2004.
SU 1200 Solar Air Collector Limited Production
Your Solar Home Inc. is now in it's second phase of development, manufacturing and building a distribution network for their products.
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| SolarSheat 1500 Solar Air Collector |
The Hybrid System
Your Solar Home realized that if we could connect our air and liquid solar collectors to a hydronics furnace we could technically have a solar powered heating system for a home. A backup boiler and tank were selected to provide a backup energy source and storage system. By controlling and managing the energy stream and delivery we designed and built a hybrid heating system.
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Hybrid Heating System with Radiant Heat Option |
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Your Solar Home Inc. has packaged the hybrid heating system in two configurations for small and large homes. A larger number of collectors can be added for greater energy utilization. A standard configuration (2 + 2) is available for small homes and a larger system configuration (2 + 4) is available.
We
also developed a solar
preheating and ventilation system for customers who may just require
ventilation and preheating. The system uses a modified heat recovery
ventilation system with bypass damper connected to our Solarsheat 1500s
secondary air panel. The system can preheat warm air when the sun is shining
and switch back automatically to heat recover mode at night or during cloudy
conditions.
Solar HRV and Bypass Damper
