Gaylord Hospital is the first in the state of Connecticut to receive state funding through a Connecticut Clean Energy Fund grant for a solar-thermal hot water system. The $323,000 from the Energy Fund will be a tremendous boost to the hospital, which is a non-profit institution.  The project is slated to begin soon.

Consulting Engineering Services and partner firms will be installing 70  Solarus Evacuated Tube solar hot water panels.

An  evacuated tube solar hot water panel works by converting sunlight into heat, which is transferred to propylene glycol (a gel found in common products like hand sanitizer). The propylene glycol is pumped to a heat exchanger in the system’s water storage tank.  The system to be installed at Gaylord Hospital will feed at 3,750 gallon tank that will supply 65% of the hospital’s hot water. This is a huge step – the system is expected to cut the hospital’s fuel consumption by 7,000 gallons a year and reduce annual carbon output by 135,000 lbs.

Congratulations to Consulting Engineering Services and everyone working on this project, and kudos to Gaylord Hospital for making a sound economic and environmental decision to go solar! Anyone interested in learning more about renewable efforts in health care should head on over to the Health Care Track at BuildingEnergy 12

Interested in learning more about NetZero energy? Join us for a net zero event with Mitsubishi Electric in Southborough, MA on November 10th, 2011. Read more and RSVP here!