Brockville Climate Action Group

 
What: Chris Weissflog, EcoGen Energy: Solar water heating
Where: Brockville Public Library, 23 Buell Street

Using the sun to heat water in homes has now become a more affordable option for the average homeowner.

Thanks to new significant financial incentives from government and savings through group purchases, Leeds and Grenville homeowners can save more than $4,000 when buying this environmentally friendly alternative to oil- or electric-powered water heaters.

At the next meeting of the Brockville Climate Action Group, Chris Weissflog, founder of EcoGen Energy Inc., a North Grenville company, will cover the basics of solar domestic water heating (SDHW) and how it works, focusing on the two most common types of technology found at the domestic level.

He’ll discuss the cost/benefit of SDHW, including some of the cost factors, especially the recent and significant increase in federal and provincial incentives: ecoENERGY Home Retrofit, the Home Renovation Tax Credit, and the PST Rebate.

If people are interested, they can also form buyers’ groups and leverage volume purchasing power to get even more savings.

Weissflog will also give people a better understanding of some of the factors that apply to solar heating with systems that are integrated into space or pool heating systems. This is an area of popular interest, but also one that is most technically demanding; it is certainly feasible but often it is oversold or homeowners are given overly optimistic projections of performance.