SolarBC is a non-profit organization, a project of the BC Sustainable
Energy Association. It's mandate is to accelerate the deployment of solar
hot water systems throughout BC. It has tackled administrative and bureaucratic
barriers and has administered a series of government grants to assist
homeowners in the upfront costs of a solar hot water system.
Part of the program is to audit the performance of solar hot water systems
to answer the question of exactly how much energy does a solar hot water
system save?
Energy Alternatives was awarded the contract to design and deploy a custom
universal metering system that will work on any solar thermal system regardless
of manufacturer. Currently approximately 15 monitoring systems have been
installed throughout BC.
The datalogging system tracks: Hot water consumed net, outside temperature,
solar radiation, incoming water temperature, solar collector output temperature,
and the input energy for the gas or electric backup heater. Data is transmitted
via internet to EA's database servers, allowing for further analysis and
eventual live-streaming to the SolarBC website.