Solar hot water for Villa Guadalupe

For the residents at Villa Guadalupe senior apartments, the hot water coming from their faucets is now heated by the sun. Late last year, Solar Service installed a 14-panel Solar Hot Water system to provide hot water for the residents. 

The system will provide the citizens of Illinois with an annual CO2 reduction of over 16 metric tons, roughly the equivalent of planting 6 acres of trees each year.

The project was funded in part by grants from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation.

The system generates about 1,000 gallons of hot water per day, enough hot water to provide 15-gallons of hot water per resident per day, estimated to be 100% percent of the hot water needed at the building.

The system operates in a closed-loop with heat exchangers transferring solar heated glycol to potable water held in storage tanks. It is designed as a gravity drain-back, which uses a separate storage tank for the glycol solution, so that the panels will drain whenever the system is off. This allows the collectors to heat up faster and increase system performance.