The Contractors' Corner contains resources for solar water heating installers. Review the links below for information on application assistance and technical reports.
Technical Resources
CSI-Thermal Program Handbook the California Solar Initiative-Thermal program handbook.- CSI Thermal Metering Installation Guide
- CSI-Thermal SRCC OG-100 Incentive Calculator Guide
- CEC Climate Zones
- SRCC System Installation Standards operating guidelines and minimum standards for certifying Solar Water Heating Systems
Inspection Checklist CSI-Thermal Program Inspection Checklist is based on the Solar Rating and Certification ( SRCC) Operating Guidelines (OG) 300- Skip's Tips Valuable information for installers that eases your sizing pains. There are many ways to determine the correct collector array size. Metering is difficult and expensive, but the methods listed in this paper should provide guidance sizing of the array.
- NREL paper on Freeze Protection Valves 10/15/2008 Water Consumption from Freeze Protection Valves for Solar Water Heating Systems Save
- Anti-scald Valve list List of valves that are certified by the American Society of Safety Engineers.
- SWHPP analysis of tankless water heaters 10/15/2008 Heating Up: the Debate about Instantaneous Water Heaters and Solar Water Heaters, which is more efficient?
- Skip's Tips on Insulation Skip warned against using plastic or polyolefin pipe insulation because of their vulnerability to melting. This article will discuss that issue further.
- Skip's Tips on Freeze Protection and Insulation This document contains tips for optimizing solar water heating ( SWH) systems based on Skip's inspections to date and other helpful resources.
A SWH system will save the same amount of CO2 emissions in its lifetime as not driving the average car 2,000 miles.
