Solar Water Heaters-Northern Lights Solar Heating Solutions

As a residential general contractor, I first started researching solar hot water and heating systems for an off-the-grid customer looking to convert their hot water and in floor heat to solar. Their goal was to pretty much eliminate their propane bill, which is exactly what we did. I was so impressed with the results of the Northern Lights Solar Solutions system I installed for them, that I was compelled to install a system for my own home. My home, located at 10,000’ elevation, is in the central mountains of Colorado. We are south facing, backed up to the Continental Divide, in an area of very cold snowy and windy winters. To our advantage, Colorado has on average over 300 days of sunshine per year, making it an ideal location for solar energy gain. The Northern Lights system I installed includes 90 evacuated tubes mounted on the ground, and a 120 gallon double heat exchanger solar hot water storage tank controlled by a FloCon C+ Solar Working Station, Willow Pump and DeltaSol BS Plus integrated controller. The system has been up and working for 2 months now, and has thus far supplied us with 100% of our hot water AND is heating approximately 25% of our home. Today, a typical day in December, our outside temperature was 16 degrees Fahrenheit and rose to 36 degrees. The sky was mostly sunny with a few clouds. We started out the day with the water in our tank at 123 degrees Fahrenheit. At the end of the day, that temperature is at 183.7 degrees Fahrenheit… a gain of 60.7 degrees! I have found that no matter how cold the temperature gets here, the evacuated tubes ALWAYS make heat. That is in direct contrast with the flat panel systems I have seen. We are very pleased!

We are so impressed with our solar heating system. After 3 years we have determined an annual average savings of 72% of our heating bills. This amounts to about $2200 year and a payback of under 5 years given the 30% federal tax credit. I would highly recommend Northern Lights Solar Solutions. Before I bought I researched a number of companies and found the most comfort in both their knowledge and the easy of installation of their system. Anyone thinking of installing solar needs to make these guys their 1st stop.

On sunny days in a Kansas winter ( -10 to 35 F) the system can heat 100 gallons of 60 degree F water to well over 100 degrees. In the spring I was able to raise the temperature of my 8' x 15' x 4' endless pool from it's 50 degree winter temperature to a comfortable 85 degrees in just 2 days via the pool heat exchanger. I purchased extra water to air exchangers as well as pumps and thermostats as I will be trying many combinations of utilizing the free hot water supply. I am also considering supplementing the hot water supply with a wood fired boiler on cloudy days. When and if it becomes remotely economical to convert sun to electric you can see by my pictures I have lots of south facing roof space as well as peaks for six foot Honeywell turbines.

We are writing this in reference to Mike Stelling's general contract work. We hired Mike to install a solar domestic hot water/radiant floor system. Mike researched the best options for our system, considering the size of our home, the space available to install the collectors and storage tanks, and our prior year's heating costs. One of his proposals was based on newer technology (Northern Lights Solar Evacuated Heating Systems) than the traditional flat plate solar collectors of the 70's. The Northern Lights Solar Heating System met our expectations of the amount of heating provided in the space that we had to install the system. So far the installation has performed very well, our domestic hot water needs and radiant floor heating needs have exceeded our expectations of the system. Our propane use for heating and hot water have been vastly reduced from last year.

We researched many technologies looking to supplement are very high heating bills in Northern Ontario. Geo Thermal simply did not have the payback we were looking for so we decided to try solar heating using heat vacuum tubes for our cold winter months. We were so impressed we added it to both the shop and the house. We have had so much positive response that we approached Northern Lights Solar about the possibility of a dealership. Now we are marketing solar to local businesses with the ability to positively say that this technology is the only way to go!

Last year I got a quote from you for a solar heating unit for my house of about $8000. I thought it was too much at the time. There is a company in the next town from me so I asked them for a quote. They said it would be about $5000 for a flat panel drain back system ,so I ordered their system. I was miss lead. The original quote left out many items and I had to buy $400 of copper pipe and connections on my own and now the drain back doesn't drain back and I have to get $800 worth of antifreeze.My total cost now is close to $8000 and I still want their installer to come and check my system. I was at your shop in Winnipeg last year and your staff there seemed much more professional and knowledgeable . I am sorry now that I just didn't purchase your system.

Northern Lights Solar Solutions. I confirm that in October, 2009 I hired Northern Lights Solar Solutions for the installation of a residential solar hot water/home heating system. We had been conversing since March, 2009 regarding the potential install of this system, and during this time they had provided me with expert and thorough support to my many questions in the areas of site optimization and system configurations. I can confidently recommend Northern Lights Solar Solutions as a solid and reliable supplier, installer, and experts in their field.

Dan, thought I would send you a reference letter on your DIY solar system that we installed last year. First let me say your instructions were very well layed out and made it very easy for a 1st timer to understand and follow. We had the system up and running in a weekend. My wife always wanted radiant floor heating so we ran PEX piping in our great room under the joist in the crawl space and it is a delight on those cold winter days. As for hot water, our supply is endless and we have never run out even with 3 teenagers showering 1st thing in the morning. I would recommend Northern Lights Solar Solutions to any of our friends.

Given the extremely high cost of propane in our Northern Camp, solar heating made such sense. The 1st season of operation we used less than 1/2 of our normal propane usage which was a savings of over $50,000 USD. We estimate the entire installation to have paid for itself with in the 1st year. I would highly recommend Northern Lights Solar Solutions for any commercial design and installation. They came in on time and on budget which is what most businesses require. Most importantly the system delivered the savings we were looking for.

I saved 1000kw of power last month and I'll save even more now. the solar is pretty well heating the house. Since I install the TED energy detective.com, I have been able to tweak the floor temp and put more demand on the solar. I'm running the numbers (TEMP) you suggested and it cycles about every 15 minutes. It's a pretty sight watching the numbers rise that fast. Please use me as a reference any time you need to. Your service and engineering is top shelf.