The Process

Outlined below are the necessary steps to help every individual reach their Solar Thermal Goals...

Solar Site Evaluation

If you are thinking of utilizing solar technology for hot water, we recommend a solar site evaluation as a first step. Through this evaluation, your Account Manager will start to determine your property's potential to produce hot water with solar energy. Sustainable Future will conduct a Solar Thermal site evaluation for $100 plus mileage. If you decide to purchase a Solar Thermal system from Sustainable Future, the $100 site visit evaluation fee will be applied to any system purchase within 90 days of your site visit. The first visit includes taking pictures for the Solar Pathfinder detailed evaluation and generally takes about an hour.

What to expect during a solar site evaluation:

• Motivations and Needs Determination - There are a number of reasons why an individual would choose to install a Solar Thermal System. This first step is used to find out what your needs are, your specific motivations and energy goals.
• Basic Visual Inspection of Property - A high-level first look is used to determine the best possible location where a Solar Thermal system might work. Items such as roof structural integrity, available ground space, and other factors require consideration. Contemplate whether a roof-mount, or ground-mount system best fits your location. For a roof mounted system, we'll check the orientation of the building (solar will perform best when facing true south and tilted at latitude; however most sites are not perfect). In East Tennessee, this means that you want your collectors to face south at approximately 35 degrees. We'll also check for any trees, buildings or other structures that could shade the equipment in the chosen location.  
• Solar Pathfinder Evaluation - We use a Solar Pathfinder device to reveal the sun's path over a year's time to determine how much solar hot water your location is capable of producing. A Solar Pathfinder identifies the best site or sites to install Solar Thermal collectors. We will plug your site's specific data into the Pathfinder software, upload photographs taken on site to reflect any trees or buildings that may shade solar collectors, and then generate a report showing how much hot water you can expect to produce with solar at the chosen location. This information is used to maximize performance for your system.

Full Proposal Review

• Full Proposal Review -  Based on your motivations and needs, the visual inspection of the property, and the Pathfinder Evaluation, Sustainable Future will present a full proposal with a recommended Solar Thermal system for your home. This proposal will include a cost/payback breakdown, information on solar collectors and other equipment and other important details. The proposal generally takes less than a week to create, and then a second visit will be scheduled at the client's convenience.

Tax Credit and System Design

• Tax Credit - The Federal Tax Credit can only be applied for by the owner of the property after the system is installed.
• System Design -  System design begins with understanding the clients needs and constraints. System design must consider things like: budget, solar resource, physical space, wind load, existing plumbing infrastructure, parts availability, parts reliability, serviceability, time lines and aesthetics.  Balancing these competing interests can make designing a Solar Thermal system a challenging task.  The system design process is completed when all parties sign off on design documents.

Engineering and Permitting

• Engineering and Permitting - At this point Sustainable Future identifies authority having jurisdiction in your area, acquires the necessary structural stamps, utility requirements, and building permits. Each job has it's own set of challenges. As your general contractor, Sustainable Future uses this time to iron out all details and start creating an installation plan. Depending on the complexity of the system this process ranges from 2-6 weeks.

Installation

• Installation - The installation process begins with the ordering of parts.  Plans are finalized for material handling, safety, electrical team, mounting team, collector insatallation team and commissioning.  Parts are inspected, tested, and kitted as they come in.  Generally the actual installation is a very small part of the installation process.

Repair and Maintenance

• Repair and maintenance - Properly designed and installed Solar Thermal systems should have very little repair and maintenance.  It will generally be helpful to wash the collectors once a year after pollen season.  It is a good practice to monitor production in-order to detect possible problems.