Prison laundry goes solar
New Zealand owned solar water heating company SolarPeak New Zealand Limited has recently completed one of New Zealand’s largest solar heating installations, for the Department of Corrections at the Christchurch Men’s Prison laundry.
The laundry at Christchurch Men’s Prison operates thirteen hours a day, five days a week, and its washing machines consume 7,000 litres of water per day. The water temperature must be a consistent 80 degrees Celsius for sterilisation, which requires a very high energy input.
The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) part-funded a feasibility study which found that a thermal solar collector array in conjunction with a gas boiler would provide the best solution for meeting the Department of Corrections commitment to cut energy consumption and reduce its carbon footprint. Once a sound business model was produced EECA agreed to subsidise the whole installation.
The SolarPeak thermal solar collector array consists of 97m2 of high performance evacuated tube panels, which will deliver 39% of the total annual power requirement. This equates to a 7.6 year payback time on the investment, although a recent sharp increase in the price of gas has reduced the payback time even further.
Glenn Harvey, SolarPeak New Zealand’s Accredited Solar Designer, designed and project managed the installation which included the manufacture of two 3,125 litre hot water storage cylinders. “Large scale solar installations are a very specialised field. There are so many variables to consider, and the end product must satisfy customer expectations in terms of performance, quality, and cost effectiveness” says Glenn.
On the first day of commissioning, 17 August 2008, the system heated 3,125 litres of water from 19 degree Celsius up to over 70 degrees Celsius using only solar energy. Glenn says ” I believe that the system will surpass conservative performance estimates used to justify the investment”.
SolarPeak New Zealand has a nationwide reputation for installing high quality domestic solar hot water systems, but there is a rapid increase in commercial and government sector work. Marketing Manager Anthony Corke says “We have even bigger projects in the pipeline, including a 170 m2 installation for a city council, a project consisting of 118 individual installations on pensioner flats for another district council, as well as numerous small to medium sized commercial projects. Rising fuel costs has made solar water heating a viable long term alternative to other heating sources for many businesses and organisations”.
Left to right
Patrick Kearns, Assets and Property Manager
Christchurch Men’s prison
Glenn Harvey, CEO
SolarPeak NZ
SolarPeak is one of New Zealand's leading manufacturer and installer of solar hot water heating systems for residential and commercial use. Select from the choices below to learn more about our products and services.
Since 2000 SolarPeak have installed over 4000 systems N.Z. wide achieving the highest award of quality and performance with the contract for Government House.
