Featured Projects
Islandwood Lodge RFH and Solar DHW System
Islandwood is an outdoor educational facility located on Bainbridge Island, a 40 minute ferry ride from Seattle. Founded by the philanthropic efforts of a software executive and his wife, it provides and teaches environmental programs to both elementary school children and adults. Islandwood mission statement emphasizes using sound environmental practices and building designs that incorporate efficient use of energy-saving technologies.
The property was formerly the Blakely sawmill, which was the world's largest mill in the early 1900's.
Advanced Radiant Technology was hired in Nov. of 2007 to repair and modify the (7) existing Viessmann boilers installed at the facility in 2001-2002. All of the buildings use radiant heating and the dormitories have solar DHW systems. Other buildings have solar PV to supplement the electrical loads. ART was also asked to retrofit several of the existing flat solar panel systems used for DHW heating, with new controls and pumping modules. The units had failed after a freeze-up, damaging many panels. The panels were replaced using the OEM panels from another manufacturer (Heliodyne) Viessmann Solar Divicons with the Wilo Star 21U-25 pump were installed as the interface between the solar panels and the tube and shell heat exchanger.
I was hired as a consultant to the facility in Jan of 2008 to coordinate mechanical design for both a new dormitory and large classroom. The buildings would incorporate radiant heating and a solar DHW array for the dorm.
The system design for the Lodge solar DHW system took advantage of Viessmann's solar design services in Waterloo, Ont., to provide the optimum system to supplement the large domestic hot water load. Mr. Rob Waters, Viessmann's solar engineer, made the process painless, despite the numerous revisions of the mechanical plan. The system uses an array of 120 tubes (Vitosol 300T Vacuum tubes) for maximum efficiency in the cloudy NW climate. The flow rate design of 375gpm uses 4 rooftop arrays, each having 30 tubes. The distribution piping is type "L" copper from the roof to the Lodge mechanical room. The standing seam metal roof utilizes special S-5!™ brackets to secure both the piping, the solar collector headers and tube supports. These hangers eliminate roof penetrations. We use German pipe hangers made by Mupro to hold the copper, these hangers have vibration isolation rubbers to minimize any pump harmonics. We also use Viega ProPress fittings and REMS presstools to reduce installation time, flame hazards and flux contamination of the piping systems.
The solar rooftop array transfers the heat into a flat plate heat exchanger, and stores the heated potable water in a 325g thermal storage tank. The system design uses a 125g gas-fired water heater as supplemental storage if the system output is making excessive BTU's. The Viessmann Vitosolic 200 control manages solar system temperatures and controls the pumps. The system was commissioned in May of 2009 and is expected to provide 70% of the anticipated DHW load. It should be noted that the Lodge also uses a Viessmann Vitodens 200-6/24 boiler to heat the 12,000SF building. The building was designed by Mithun Architects and constructed by Drury Construction.
N. Capitol Hill Solar
We completed this project in June of 2003, a north Capitol Hill residence which features radiant heating throughout, computer-controlled fan ventilation, and Solar domestic hot water production. The electricity for the home is also generated with rooftop Siemens PV panels that allow surplus electricity to be sold back to Seattle City Light. The plumbing system includes waste heat recovery, water purification and greywater reclamation storage.
The project received special Seattle DCLU permits for prototype design. The home, designed by Jim Burton (www.blipdesign.com), appeared in the June 2004 issue of DWELL magazine. It won a 2005 Built Green Design Award.
The owner designed a computer software program to integrate the whole house systems, and manage the electrical or fan loads.
ART designed and installed the radiant heating system, solar DHW system, gas piping, HVAC fan and chimney design, and installation of the server room ventilation. We coordinated the installation of the solar rooftop array with Mike Nelson, (Solar Northwest) a local solar luminary, who did the PV installation on a custom 40ft. x 15 ft welded "wing" mounted on the rooftop observatory. 18 Siemens PV panels provide the 9500 watts of electrical output.
A Viessmann Vitogas GS1 boiler is used to heat the residence and provide backup for the Viessmann B-92 solar DHW tank, as the sunlight falls short in winter months, The Thermomax vacuum tube solar panel array uses a SMT-400 controller with modem port, which was custom made for the project, and communicates with the integrated whole-house software. The exterior piping on the roof in insulated with R15 fiberglass with Zeston covers. The 40 tube system generates 70% of the yearly DHW load for a family of 4. The boiler backup coil does the rest. The solar vacuum tubes are capable of generating heat, even when it is cloudy. The Siemens PV panels are capable of generating 70-80% of the home's electrical requirements.
The Basement 6" slab is finished stained concrete. The floors on the main and upper floors are bamboo pre-engineered hardwood made by Timbergrass, a local company. This type of flooring is highly compatible with the GypSpan™ overpour covering the Wirsbo hePEX tubing.