Environmental issues concern both landlords and their tenants, and using solar heating tubes and green energy to heat a building’s water can go a long way towards allaying a potential tenant’s concerns. Whether you own industrial buildings, residential apartments or a commercial property, your potential clientele will almost certainly be impressed by any building that makes use of green energy. Installing green energy sources such as solar panels whenever you can will speak volumes about your ethics to potential renters.
The fact that it is the right thing to do for the environment probably isn’t going to appeal to your business acumen but there are other reasons to install solar panels. You can save significantly on your gas or electric expenses by becoming less reliant on these sources of heat for your building’s hot water supply. You can use these savings to to maintain the building, or pass the savings along to your tenants.
Solar heated water is not a new concept, of course. Attempts to use solar energy to heat water have been with us since the mid 1800s. However, although the technology has come a long way since then, until recently solar panels were somewhat unreliable in cold and cloudy areas. And this is where they are needed most. The recent development of vacuum sealed solar heating tubes, however, are enabling more and more people to make use of a solar energy system.
Solar heating tubes’ cylindrical shape means that they can be positioned so that some of their surface is continually facing the sun, allowing them to absorb more solar energy than solar panels. As they are able to glean the sun’s rays more efficiently, they are offer a more reliable alternative to solar panels, heating water even during the winter and on cold days. The fact that they are vacuum sealed increases their efficiency even further because vacuums provide the ideal conditions in which to insulate the heat source. This means that less power is lost. The middle of the tube can be blazing hot, while the outside of the tube, insulated by the vacuum, continues to be cool. All of this leads to an increase in the amount of the solar power being stored and put to use heating the water in the building.
The power used by your boiler system represents a huge fraction of the electricity and/or gas used in your building. You can lower your energy bills and those of your tenants significantly by installing solar heating tubes and letting renewable energy work for you. You only need purchase and install your solar heating tubes once, after that the savings can last a lifetime.
This is the perfect time to start using green energy like solar panels. Governments the world over now offer financial incentives for landlords to install solar heating tubes that uses sustainable and renewable energy sources. Many countries will even offer you a grant towards the installation of your solar heating tubes or solar panels. Ultimately, all buildings will need to conform to strict environmental regulations regarding their power consumption. It’s better to act now, while the government is willing to help.
Craig Axelrod is a partner for EmmyEnergy.com, a <A href=”http://www.emmyenergy.com/index.cfm”>New York solar power</a> business delivering <A href=”http://www.emmyenergy.com/green-energy-products/solar-heating-tubes.cfm”>solar heating tube systems</a> <A href=”http://www.emmyenergy.com/green-energy-products/solar-electric-panels.cfm”>solar pv systems</a> & clean energy products throughout the Northeast.