Near Zero Energy Solar Upgrade of a New
Mexico Home
Greg supplies the details below on the deep energy remodel of his New
Mexico home.
He used a well thought out combination of insulation upgrades and a
solar space and water heating system to cut his space and water heating
energy use of his all electric home to nearly zero.
This project shows that you can live within the limitations of an
existing home and still make dramatic reductions in energy use within
a reasonable budget.
Greg did most of the work himself, and goes through the details of
planning and installing the upgrades.
Thanks very much to Greg for taking the time to document and send in the project!
Highlights
Greg used a balanced approach consisting upgrades to the home's thermal
envelope to reduce heat loss, and then the addition of a solar heating system
sized to meet the remaining heat loss.
The thermal envelope upgrades consisted primarily of adding external foamed
in place insulation, adding attic insulation, and thermal window
treatments. These upgrades reduced the home heat loss to the point where a
reasonable size solar heating system could heat the house.
The solar heating system consists of four large ground mounted solar water
heating collectors. The solar collectors provide heat to to a large and
very well insulated fiberglass tank that is sized to store heat over cloudy
periods. Both the collectors and tank have been carefully added in such a
way as to preserve the good looks of the home.
A hydronic heat distribution system was added to distribute the stored solar
heat to the home as required. The hydronic systems replaces the electric
baseboard units that came with the all electric house.
With the insulation and solar heating upgrades, the home is now totally self
sufficient on space heating and water heating energy use.
Greg plans to add a PV array on the roof to meet the remaining small
electrical demand. When the PV array is completed, the house will be a net zero energy home.
Net zero energy use is
very difficult to achieve even for new construction homes, so it says a lot about
Greg's design that he was able to achieve this zero energy use on a remodel and
within a reasonable budget.
