Many visitors to St. Louis County’s Tilles Park are now finding themselves wondering “What in the world are those new “things” erected next to the Tilles Park Ranger Station?”, “How did they get there?” and “What do they do?”

 

St. Louis, MO based G2Power Technologies, llc, completed installation of two Solar Systems to the St. Louis County Parks and Recreation Tilles Park Ranger Station Facility on April 26, 2011. The Tilles Park installation included a Solar Hot Water and a Solar Warm Air System. G2Power is a premier installer of Solar Electric and Solar Thermal Systems in the Missouri and Illinois region.

 

Daniel Poett, President of G2Power explains: The equipment next to the Ranger Station could be called “Solar Panels”. As a matter of fact any device that uses the sun to produce energy are in fact “solar panels”, which is actually a generic term. Although technically correct, most people believe “Solar Panels” to be just the Solar Electric or Photovoltaic (PV) panels. However, the panels installed at Tilles Park are what are referred to as “Solar Thermal Collectors” since they collect heat from the sun. They do not themselves create electricity. With one of the systems, the Solar Warm Air collectors, there are two smaller panels that visitors will notice attached to one end of one of the larger panels. These two smaller panels do produce electricity and are what provides the electricity to run the fans of the Solar Warm Air system.

 

The four larger panels pictured, consist of two systems. Upon a closer look, an observer will notice that visually the system is divided up in to two pairs of collectors that have a slightly different appearance from one another. Of the two pairs, one pair creates hot water for the facility and the other pair creates warm air for the structure. The Warm Air system will derive 100% of its power to supplement the heat for the structure and to power the fans that drive the system directly from the Sun. The Solar Hot Water system is estimated to supply approx. 80% or more of the Hot Water for the structure, and does produce hot water even in the winter time.

 

 

The Solar Warm Air collectors draw in air from the structure, not outdoor air and pass it through the panels. This heats the air as it passes through. Then the air is pushed back in to the structure. This reduces the need for daytime heating using either forced air or other fossil fuel based systems. Since this process is driven by fans it is referred to as an “Active System” meaning there are mechanical forces used to drive the system and not just environmental or “Passive” forces being used. However, in this case the fans are driven by PV panels making the system 100% Solar Powered. No fossil fuel is used at all to drive the system.

 

The Solar Hot Water System uses a fluid loop that is pumped through the collectors and becomes the heat collection media. The heated fluid, in this case, since this is a drainback system is ordinary water. The fluid after passing through the collectors is then pumped through a heat exchanger that is wrapped around the exterior of the storage tank. This heat exchanger is not visible. It is located against the tank and is enclosed by the exterior cover or outer layer of the storage tank. The heated fluid as it’s passed over the storage tank will gives up or “exchanged” its’ heat to the storage tank thus heating the water for domestic usage such as bathing, laundry, etc. and this applies to any usage requiring a heated potable water supply. The system does use AC electric power to drive the pump. However, the electrical requirements are so low as to more than outweigh the cost of heating the water either electrically or with natural gas. Of course though the Solar Hot Water system does have a standby electric element in the case where weather is preventing an effective collection period.

 

According to Daniel Poett, President of G2Power: “The incorporation of Solar Thermal Systems in to St. Louis County Parks and Recreation’s design plans represents their evolution in to a public entity that is leading the way in incorporating modern renewable energy technology in to their sites. They recognize the long-term viability and cost effectiveness of renewable energy and how it can be utilized to reduce the costs associated with buildings that are a necessary part of their day to day operations

 

Contact: Daniel Poett – 314.839-1609

http://www.g2power.com

 

 

 

Pictures are property of G2Power Technologies LLC Copyright 2011 and should only be used in conjunction with this news article and may not be used, copied or distributed for any other purpose without express written permission from G2Power Technologies, LLC.