The Sun Shines On The Seed

Posted by Kim Klassen on November 17th, 2011

Instead of turning up the heat, I borrowed Brian's sweater. It's a little big, but whatevs.

A little while back I wrote about solar rating your home or building (for free) and it turned out that The Seed Studio (where I work and am writing this post from) located at 607 Front Street in Nelson, is a near perfect location for solar panels. This news excited us so much we decided to do something about it.

It just so happens that fate has situated our office not only in the sunny part of town, but also next to a professional solar design and installation firm, Omineca Solar Designs. So we went down the stairs, walked a few paces and went up some stairs and there we were talking with Steven Thomson a renewable energy specialist. With Steven’s help we are embarking on a feasibility study for solar powering our electrical appliances and lighting in our new space. It would be great to get our heat powered by renewable energy, but the current system was newly installed with the upgrades the space received only a couple of years ago. The furnace is gas powered, but who knows what the future holds for more retrofits.

So far, together we have conducted a site audit, taking into account the current electrical system, the construction of the building (getting an R Value of the building envelope, essentially how tight and buttoned-up the building is) and getting up onto the roof to directly measure how much sun we receive every day of the year. Steven also assessed the roof lines and feasibility of putting solar panels up there. He said it would be best to not penetrate the roof and instead place the panels on a frame that sits on the roof and is weighted down.

After he left, I went through our office taking an inventory of all our appliances and lighting and how much power they use. I found the amps, volts and wattage requirements for each piece of equipment or whatever power information they had on them. Steven took this data and calculated our total energy demand at the office, based on some parameters I gave him, like how many people are here, for how long each day and how many days a week. I also told him how much we use certain pieces of equipment like the dishwasher, printers, studio lights, projectors and such. That reminds me…we have recently purchased a 1960′s (or earlier) Garrard RT60 turntable that I should add to Steven’s list. And we’re also using projectors more now with all the videos we are producing. Actually the printer is what gets used the least and it’s nice having an almost paper-free office.

Now that all the data has been collected, Steven is busy preparing a proposal for us. And now we wait…and try to conserve. I just borrowed Brian’s sweater instead of turning up the heat.