Planning Net Zero Energy

Now we know for sure:  the planet is warming from heat trapping gasses.  Humans started the latest cycle by burning carbon fuels.  It will get much worse as permafrost thaws and releases methane gasses.


We all have to do our part to save mankind from a hell on earth.


In our case, we’re building a Net Zero Energy system that will produce as much energy as we consume on an annual basis.  As we get more comfortable with the technology and our uses of energy, we hope to do better than that.


Below you can see some of the schematics for our system along with a layout plan for the Shop that holds all 39 PV collectors and our new dual Caleffi solar thermal collectors.

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Principal suppliers of our solar technology

Solar Photovoltaic
Solar Thermal Domestic Hot Water

On the shop, you can see 39 SunTech photovoltaic panels and two Caleffi solar thermal panels.  Inside we are staging 72 new Northstar solar batteries and the guys from SkyWire are installing inverters supplied by SolSource.

All the domestic hot water for the shop and apartment is supplied by an innovative Caleffi solar drainback system.  The collectors feature a new and patented internal manifold design that gives positive gravity drainback to a small insulated storage tank.  The Caleffi system prevents freeze damage and fluid overheating while giving the most efficient heat exchange to the cold incoming domestic water.

Solar PVT (Photovoltaic Thermal)

PVT’s are high tech sandwiches made of glass, aluminum, solar cells, heat exchange tubing, graphite and insulation.

We set up a manufacturing cell to make PVT’s in our shop

Solar PVT’s
Solar Thermals

Here we show how water from the geothermal system works with the PVT’s.  The PVT’s also warm the barn floor in the winter.