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Client: WestWyck
Location: Hunter St, West Brunswick
Project Completion: May 2007
Project Value: $140k
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Solar Electricity and Hot Water for the WestWyck Project was designed, supplied and fitted by
the Environment Shop and its renewable energy accredited engineers and installers.
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WestWyck occupies the building and grounds of the former Brunswick West Primary School. The WestWyck
developers have brought the building to new and vibrant life as an urban demonstration eco-housing project of positive environmental
value, driven by high design standards.
The environmentally sustainable features include apartments built to minimise energy
usage through double-glazing, heavy insulation, careful selection of lights and appliances and cross-flow ventilation systems. The
apartments have been built making maximum use of re-used and recycled materials to the principles of healthy buildings, minimising
off-gassing and toxic materials.
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Solar Electric and Evacuated Tube Solar Hot Water Installation at WestWyck
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The project includes water conservation, achieved through selection of efficient appliances, maximising roof
water harvesting and re-applying this through the solar hot water system, treating and re-using greywater from bathrooms and
laundries and treating the blackwater and human biodegradable wastes on site.
- Total Solar Output (Saving): 4,950 Peak Watts
- Electricity Per Day: 28 kWh per day in summer
- Electricity Per Annum: 8.23 Mega Watt Hours
- Greenhouse Gas Yearly: 11.9 tonnes CO²
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Grid Connected Systems interact with the electricity supply grid. Grid
Connected Systems are generally located in urban areas and the PV's are the usual energy source. The main components of the system
are the renewable energy source and a grid interactive inverter.
The inverter converts the low voltage DC voltage generated to the
normal 240 volts AC household supply.
It also monitors the operation of the system to control how much electricity is drawn from or fed
to the grid.
If the household uses more energy than the renewable sources can supply, the shortfall is provided by the grid so power is
always available. If the system is supplying more energy than is needed, the excess is fed to the grid. Often the meter just "runs backwards" when
electricity is going into the grid, so the household only pays for the difference between what is imported and what is exported.
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Sunnyboy (BP Solar) 1100E Grid Connect Inverter
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5 Apartment Buildings
Solar Panels: 30 x BP Solar 165 Watt, 24 Volt, Polycrystalline Silicon Photovoltaic Solar Panels
Panel Area: 7.6m² per unit (37.8m² in total)
Inverters: SMA, Sunnyboy 1100E Grid Connect Inverters
Wiring: DC wiring system to connect the PV's to Inverter, AC wiring system to connect Inverter to switchboard,
Isolator Switches and circuit breakers.
Framing: Custom made aluminium frame system engineered for PV Systems
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- 5 x 12 Evacuated Tube Collectors
- 5 x 250L Tanks
- 5 x Baxi Gas Boiler for Hydronic Heating and SHW Booster
- System uses around 70% less energy than a standard hot water system
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Client: Hume City Council
Location: Sunbury Aquatic Centre
Area: 32m²
Water Provided: 2000L/day
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This project, designed and installed by the Environment Shop, provides over 2000 litres of hot water per day
for the Sunbury Aquatic Centre. The system makes use of state of the art Evacuated Tube Solar Water Heaters capable of
providing hot water throughout the whole year.
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The Sunbury Aquatic Centre is located at 20 Ligar Street, Sunbury. Existing facilities were upgraded with
additional showers, toilets and change rooms to be constructed on the south side of the existing indoor pool. The new facilities include
five showers with water saving shower heads and four basins which will be fitted with flow restrictors.
This system uses 16 Sunplus CPC 12 Tube Panels covering a total of 32 square meters. These are plumbed to a ground
level 2,000 litre storage tank. Two pumps and a differential temperature controller are used to circulate the water from the panels to the tank. A
heat exchange unit located in the storage tank transfers heat from the water circulating through the panels, to the water in the storage tank. When
drawn from the storage tank it passes through an instantaneous water heater which boosts the temperature if it is not hot enough.
This whole
system is capable of supplying all hot water need, irrespective of demand, flow and solar conditions. The solar system is capable of supplying at
least 60% of annual hot water demand. It will reduce gas costs for the centre by between $5,000 and $10,000 per annum.
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Installing the hot water tank, pumps, controller, booster and other components
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16 x Sunplus CPC Evacuated Tube Solar Panels.
Collector Aperture Area = 2m²
Total Aperture Area = 32m²
200L Stainless Steel with Copper Chlorinator Coils & Side Tank
2 Wilo Pumps & Controller
Rinnai HD250E Commercial Instantaneous Gas Water Heater
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Energy
~ 35,000 kWh/year
Greenhouse Gas
~ 50 Tonnes/year
Finances
Between $5,000 & $10,000/year
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Client: Northcote Traders & Darebin City Council
Location: High Street, Northcote
Project Value: $34,000
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This Environment Shop has recently designed, supplied and installed a Solar Powered LED (Light Emitting Diode Bud
Lighting Kit, a project by local traders to light the trees in their street. The result is much lower power consumption, longer life
and when powered with solar panels, zero greenhouse gas emissions. The use of solar power also means total flexibility in locating the lights,
as no 240-volt power is required.
Bud lighting adds a magical sparkle to trees and buildings in public places. However, of all the forms of
public lighting it is by far the most energy inefficient. Those little glowing bulbs are designed for long life rather than efficiency. They are
very wasteful producing much more heat than light. In fact, conventional bud lighting uses around 5 lumens per watt compared to about 15 lumens per
watt for a standard incandescent lamp.
Recent technological developments have made it possible to use LED's (Light Emitting Diodes for
this form of public lighting, with dramatic energy savings. LED's are actually very well suited to this kind of application. They are an
excellent high intensity point source and have potentially very long life (over 50,000 hours).
There are obstacles, however, to their use as a
bud light. LED's generally have a narrow beam angle whereas a wide beam angle is needed for bud lights. LED's need about 3 Volts to operate
whereas conventional bud lights operate on 12 Volts. There was also the need to have tough, long life, exterior wiring and connections. The much lower power
consumption also made it possible to power these LED's from solar panels.
Recently a small group of traders in the Melbourne suburb of Northcote
completed a project to light 13 trees using solar powered, LED Bud Lighting.
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The project, which is believed to be the first of its type in Australia was initiated by the Northcote Traders
Association supported by Sustainability Victoria, the Darebin City Council and the Environment Shop, who designed and installed the lights.
The project had been planned for years but had floundered due to power supply problems. Shop owners were uncomfortable with providing power to run
the lights without compensation but putting in separate meters was not viable, and running a power cable from inside the shops was difficult. Solar
Power provided a simple solution. Solar Panels, batteries and control equipment could be mounted on the roof of the shop adjacent the trees.
The total cost of the project was $34,000 with 13 trees being lit. This included the bud lights, solar panels, batteries, regulator, controllers,
and the labour in design, construction and installation. The result was a dramatically improved streetscape using Solar LED Technology
consuming as little as 10% of the energy that would be consumed with the conventional alternative. Plus, because of the use of Solar Power,
eletrical supply and wiring problems have been solved. And of course, no greenhouse gas emissions at all.
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Number Of Trees
13 medium sized trees were lit. A church facade was
profiled in the same area as part of a different project
Bud Lights
Wide angle, weatherproofed,
cool white LED's - Total Length of LED Strings approximately 455 meters.
Hours Of Operation
Programmable from 6 to 10 hours per night.
Solar Power System
BP Solar Poly-Silicon 12 Volt
Photovoltaic Panels. Low maintenance sealed lead acid batteries. Regulator, timer and power optimiser.
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- One bud light system uses about 40W.
- Each system operates about 10 hours per day. (400 Wh/day)
- There are 13 trees, using total 5.2 kWh/day or 1898 kWh/year
- Per year, 2657kg Greenhouse Gas abated.
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