in march called co op solar quick agenda for this evening i just want to give some background to folks on the co op if you're unfamiliar talk about our program partners that have helped to make this possible talk a little bit about the solar hot water systems how they work look at everyone's favorite question of how much is a cost and then hopefully answer any questions that you guys might have through an open question answer so welcome is our guest speaker for the second half of the info session tonight i'm in your dreams welcome so a little bit about the energy co op of vermont we are not for profit member own cooperat based in colchester founded in the year two thousand we have a membership base currently of about twenty one hundred here in chittenden we deliver a mix of fuel oils kerosene and wood pellets we also install and service high efficiency heating equipment basically the mission of the co op is to save their members money and help the environment in the process so one of the ways we're doing that is to move towards renewable energies and away from fossil fuel energies as much as we can starting a few years back we partnered with the local vermont company that manufactures and harvest with pellets here in the state so we're now providing those to our members as well as a optical optimal mix of energy choices we realize that the different types of energy that are being used here in chittenden they need to be delivered and we're hoping to be able to do that for our members that at a good price  and as i said also move towards renewables when we can so the latest way we've done that was with a co op solar solar hot water program which is open to any resident and any small business owner here in the county but one of the  company that provides our solar hot water systems to help make this program possible we've also created a partnership with resource of vermont there one of our certified installers of these systems certified by renewable energy vermont  and we've also partnered with the state credit union p s e c you through their solar loan program to provide a financing component for this program that helps people get into one of these systems with no money down a little bit about some work as i said they're based in for chance they assemble and distribute these systems from their headquarters there and just this year they were nominated for green mountain environmental work they're the number one brand of solar hot water systems in the state so next i have just a short video kind of talks about how one of these sun work systems works and i really hope you enjoy it because i love it how to sunward solar hot water system work good question and the answer is quite simple let's take a look at the components designed and manufactured to be easy to install and to work together to efficiently collect transfer and store solar energy in the form of hot water for bathing and washing the parts most of which are exclusive to s the number of collectors needed on your property is determined by how much hot water you need sunward will help you easily determine whether a one or two collector system is right for you and will help you determine the right location on your property for capturing the sun's energy there are three mounting options for the sunward solar collectors sunward steel solar which can be adjusted to the exact angle for your latitude sunward is an easy to assemble and handsome frame which consists of four by four song lumber  maximize thermal dynamic efficiency and quickly transfer the heat from the solar collectors to your water supply the solar heated i call runs through four concentric copper coils heating the water supply coming into your home quickly and efficiently to as much as one hundred  sixty degrees fahrenheit as the water heats up in the heat exchanger it expands gets lighter and rises through a flex pipe to the top of the sunward solar storage tank cold water from the bottom of the tank flows into the heat exchanger to take its place the sun where delta t controller on the heat exchanger unit compares the temperature of the collector and the temperature of the water in the heat exchanger if the collector is hotter it turns the pump on when the water is fully heated it turns the pump off sunward solar storage tank is connected into your existing hot water system with another set of flex hoses cold water from your well or city water supply goes into the bottom of the solar tank solar heated water comes out of the top of the tank and into your existing water heater if the solar heated water is hot enough your existing water heater never turns on if the water is partially heated by solar then your existing heater uses less fuel saving you money either way you win and that's how the sunward system works there and also do a roof mount system for business as i said earlier this program is open to small business owners places like daycare centers even a facility like this if they're using enough water might be something to consider this  s a dog kennel down or gents they had a sun word system installed and saved over three thousand dollars on their propane bill last year after having the system installed there's also a ground mount  spot in your yard we also have a timber frame kit which is manufactured here in vermont basically comes as of four by four timber frame and some people will finish those off into  utility shit sometimes even a chicken coop if they want to produce eggs and energy in their own backyard so everyone's big question how much does one of these systems cost in most cases we've we can get this down below five thousand dollars which is a pretty significant jump from where these systems typically are and have been installed and the reason we've been able to do that is through these partnerships that we've forged both with sun word the state credit union and our local installers they've all committed to to this program and to to basically bring down the bottom line of the cost of one of these systems will also talk more about the financing component for this program which is essentially allowing people to get into a system with no money down kind of breaking down the pricing typically for solar hot water system installation costs with all the labor and components of the system just over about ten thousand dollars right now there's a federal tax credit available for these systems it's a thirty percent credit off the list price there's also currently vermont incentive for this system which right now is a little bit up in the air this money comes from the clean energy development fund and the funding for that fund is is in question right now so currently the incentive is still in place i'm just encouraging people to be aware of that and factor that into their decision as far as moving forward with getting a system so this is kind of an idea of the list price you're going to end up right about sixty three hundred dollars in most cases with the co op solar program we've basically bundled these services together and through our partnerships we've been able to bring the price down fairly dramatically percentage wise so installed cost through the co op solar program just under eighty four hundred dollars the federal tax credit still applies it's a little bit less in this case because it is a percentage however the vermont incentive would stay the same and just one point on the vermont incentive aside from the clean energy fund kind of being up in the air right now is that if you had an energy audit completed on your house in the last two years you can take additional three hundred dollars off the installed system cost through the vermont incentive program so kind of visually looking at it with an upfront purchase you're going to have a shorter payback period from about five to eight years make the initial purchase you get your vermont incentive directly from the installer they give you that check as soon as the system's been installed you're obviously free to do whatever you want with that money so so you're looking at a payback period there and after that it's just cumulative savings going right into your pocket or wherever your child's college education whatever whatever you want to do with that money it's it's just going to be there for you that's the money you're saving through one of these systems the financing option which is essentially something we've worked with the state credit union on they have a solar home loan program that has been very successful they've been doing it for several years now so the process itself is pretty quick and straightforward it's essentially a home equity loan with a discounted rate  the terms are flexible so you can you can finance the cost of the system up to fifteen years and just make monthly payments using that financing option one of the questions a lot of people ask is there are going to be a prepayment penalty for this or this loan answer is no so you can take your vermont incentive check and put that right towards the loan as soon as you get it you could take your federal tax credit and put that right towards the loan next year and there's not going to be any pay any prepayment penalty for that so visually looking at the financing option one of the great things about having this financing component is that the system can be cash positive from day one  many cases meaning that you're never going to be out of pocket money to have one installed so looking at the financing option right off the bat you're going to get a nine hundred dollars bonus into your bank account from that vermont incentive check basically at that point the money that you're usually spending to heat your hot water is dramatically reduced because you're getting the free energy of the sun you're still making payments on that but the savings that you're getting from the system essentially helping you to make that payment and also cover your monthly loan payment with the loan through through the state credit union basically how the program works we're offering a free site assessment for anyone that's interested in of solar is right for their home you can either do that on our website which is co op solar dot net i also have some sign up forms here tonight if folks are interested and filling one of these out i'd be more than happy to put your information into the system basically once you've signed up for a free site assessment you'll receive an e mail within a couple business days it's just going to have a quick survey for you to fill out basically get some more specific information about your house and property location at that point you'll submit that back the another great thing about the free site assessment is that the assessor will be able to print out a return on investment report based on your specific situation so they'll be able to look at the type of fuel you're using to heat your hot water and they'll be able to look at how many people are typically in your household and will be able to look over the lifetime of the system to see what energy savings you're going to get what financial savings you're going to get and that helps you to make a much more informed decision on whether or not this is a good investment for you very thing looks good there we go ahead and move forward with the installation through one of our certified partners and as i said once installations complete that installer will give you your vermont incentive check currently with questions about the clean energy development fund again i am encouraging people to sign up sooner than later if we get you in the system to have your installation done that will guarantee that you're going to receive that incentive as it stands right now next year you'll file for a thirty percent tax credit on the purchase one point about that is you can you can file for that credit over several years if you want to break the credit down in two installments essentially the next year you could file for a portion of it the following year he file for the rest of it that's just a personal tax question that you'll you'll want to ask and  sentially you start saving money from day one with this system not to mention the environmental benefits so that in essence is the conclusion of my presentation and i would love to open it up to any questions that folks might have and we can go from there yes i have a lot of questions all right want to be the only one ask you so i could ask one or two and then let others ask away ok so my situation having just bought  ir home and richmond at the end of the summer that needs a new roof sometime soon but i'm hoping that i don't have the place they were in the mix here that would be difficult for the roof mounted that the ground would be more that's correct the ground system for the aluminum frame is about eight hundred dollars more that frame is also made here in vermont trying to sources as many local products as we can for these systems  and then the timber frame unit is also has an additional cost some some people so it may be eight hundred dollars more for for the aluminum frame and then an additional eight hundred for the ground  installers will put that up for you and install the panels right onto it all for a cost that so sixteen hundred dollars they would set up the timber frame and put the panel absolutely there is thanks for bringing bringing that up my last slide shows that i did not talk about it we're able to run this program through june thirtieth right now so obviously encouraging folks to sign up the reason for that also just kind of goes back to the collaboration is that we've essentially there's only so much time that all these organizations can kind of lean a little to bring the price of the system down you're not going to find a better price system than our co ops all are right now from the co ops perspective we're hoping to integrate this as a product and service offering in the future but the price will certainly go up and that's something we're able to do  but right now we're scheduled to run the program through june thirtieth if you haven't got your installation done by then that's absolutely fine and we're just looking to get people signed up by june thirtieth and in the system good question yes bu think a lovely now we're providing there's no water in the well sure great question so so the way we install these systems you're never going to run out of hot water which is the first thing to know if you're on electrics using electricity to figure out water then that could be an issue obviously if the power goes out there's no additional electrical hookup with the system so you don't need to worry about that aspect there's a small p v panel a solar electric panel that's on the system it's just a small twenty watt panel that powers the motor which is the only moving part on the system so that's not going to be working during the night  anyways because the sun is not out there during the day conceivably my last power still out water absolutely because that panel is still going to be getting energy from the sun your solar thermal panels are still going to get energy from the sun and how long retain and i mean i understand the concept at night you have no sun so therefore you're not creating any more heat but how long will whatever he that can gather during the day last does it depend on your water system i i don't i mean you can make you shirt well it's going to vary a lot depending on what the day's solar game was ok if you've had a really nice sunny day and you're not using a whole lot of hot  water that tank should be able to store at least two to three days worth you know typically we're trying to get at least a day's worth of solar storage in your solar tank so tomorrow it's cloudy then you've got that there but it's important to remember that that we tie into your existing system so your you don't have to worry about being out of hot water at all when that when our system is not performing up to one hundred percent to meet your needs where essentially preheating that water so that your existing system doesn't have to work as hard and you don't have to pay as much money to heat the water right so it's only a cloudy day it might be that good but that would mean that less a percentage of left field maybe end up using rather than absolutely and typically over the course of the year we're looking to essentially cover fifty to seventy five percent in some cases maybe even eighty percent of your hot water needs through the system that's obviously go on on your situation yeah yes reduce the footprint of the system inside the house sure great question so she's wondering about the size of the components in your  house basically we're we're placing a fairly similar sized water tank as to what you probably already have right next to that one it's going to be a little bit bigger because we try to maximize the amount of storage that we have so that's an eighty gallon tank  it's about twenty eight inches wide so we're looking to set that right next to your existing water heater there is some maneuverability there that we can that we can work with the only other part of my  sure well for example that's what i've got to figure out here i'm going to have to for example going to have a very very just you have a small little cubby hole in your basement and there's no other room it's actually possible that we could put the solar storage tank on the first floor in a closet typically sits right next to the solar water tank and that's about the size of like a desktop computer tower you know again maybe twenty four inches wide and one of those little guys ok ok good yeah she's the solar home specialist that's a great question you know we don't we don't as the energy co op provide any sort of in house financing not sure if sunward does something like that it would it would most likely fall out of the realm of our program because the state credit union program has worked really well but i would direct that question directly at aleesha and she could probably give you a good answer on that they might have another product that they would be able to put it into essentially sun we're going to provide credit for credit yeah it's actually not that's a great question she's wondering about the similar to betsy worried about the age of her roof she's worried about the age of her hot water heater so the connections between our storage tank and your existing tank her extremely simple it's basically just flex hose that we hook up to that certainly the performance of your current tank that's affecting you know the amount of energy you're using and in the mouth to build your pain regardless so that might be something for you to look into this far is how it integrates with our system it's a kind of a non issue ok and would we do replace the standard hot water tank who would we have to go through to get that installed to tie in with the solar system sure you most likely would just be able to have the person that's installing your new tank do it it's it's like clockwork to  plumbers and they're getting more and more familiar with these systems if it if it was something that for some reason they they didn't feel comfortable doing i would just give your installer a call or the plumber that finished the tie and  they might charge you like you know an hour's worth of labor something to come out and do it but it's really straightforward yeah good question yes so i heard something about and i don't know any details about it but that in the summer time these systems are producing way more but i think it was mentioned just briefly something about a solar dump that they have to get they are not in fact the most efficient ones that you could find on the market i look at them more like a the most practical however they were acquired very little maiden aunts you can  buy very fancy collectors out there that do an incredible job of collecting all of the heat but they require a ton of meat and they're more expensive to put up and then they require more maintenance when i look at it sort of buying a ferrari and trying to drive it in vermont for four seasons you might want to stick with something that's a little bit more practical like a super or a herb pick up that has four wheel drive and that's what a collector's are designed dump the energy if you're using your shower on a regular basis then you're going to be fine if the only issue that we would really have is if you were to say  other question nobody gets to somebody else have a question and i was i was trying to pry it wan to go for it that's a cell it was showing that picture of the two going from the panel into the house so are you underground or you're digging does it have to be several fee most homes and come in with a small four five inch diameter hole the tubing comes in there and then it's all formulated before the installer roof for any reason to to actually maintain the collector's glycol that flows through the system is the one thing that needs to regular checkups it doesn't need regular replacement to check up is as simple as years there are systems out there that have been out there for much longer than five years without having the glycol changed off the project at once a year and so the platinum it would be owned by the person system collectors have a ten year warranty you can get an extended warranty up to twenty years if you like the other parts of the system have warranties running anywhere from two years to ten years water systems last year in the original being a fracture of this equipment is located how facts nova scotia there are manufacturing partner they've installed tens of thousands of shirt so as far as that is that's one of the aspects to our program that we've just tried to make more simple for people historically the permitting process can be a little frustrating for homeowners especially so we basically wrap that into the program so we're going to help and your installers are going to help handle all of that paperwork all give a special thanks to betsy and the richmond climate action team and also the vermont interface our like group for all their help and thanks to tom he is from somewhere for answering some of our technical questions if you'd like to sign up for your free site assessment i'm happy to grab that form obviously you're welcome to do that on your own time you can just go to co op solar dot net to do so and will be taking applications through the end of june