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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Solar project description for Matt Cannon multi-unit apartment, Gainesville, Florida. [Includes glossary]

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:6516913

The Matt Cannon site (H-8086) is a four-unit apartment house in Gainesville, Florida. The building has approximately 2420 square feet of conditioned space. Solar energy is used for space heating and preheating domestic hot water (DHW). The solar energy system has an array of flat-plate collectors with a gross area of 597 square feet. The array faces south at an angle of 34 degrees to the horizontal. Water is the transfer medium that delivers solar energy from the collector array to storage. Solar energy is stored above ground in a 1000-gallon steel tank with 4 inches of insulation. Solar-heated water is pumped from storage through an air heat exchanger in the return air-duct of each apartment to satisfy the heating demand. Freeze protection is by drain down. City water is preheated by a heat-exchanger jacket on a 120-gallon preheat tank which supplies preheated DHW, on demand, to a conventional 30-gallon DHW tank in each of the four apartments. When solar energy is insufficient to satisfy the DHW load, an electrical heating element in each DHW tank provides auxiliary energy for water heating. Similarly, an electrical heating element in each apartment air-handler provides auxiliary energy for space heating. The dwelling has been fully instrumented for performance evaluation since January 1978 and the data is integrated into the National Solar Data Network. Original cost estimates for provisioning and installation of the solar system are given.

Research Organization:
Boeing Co., Seattle, WA (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
AB01-76CS31020
OSTI ID:
6516913
Report Number(s):
SOLAR/1044-80/50
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English