Let a little sunshine into your life.
Get ahead of rising energy fuel costs
while reducing greenhouse emissions
by having South Face install a
Solar Domestic Hot Water System.

South Face has been installing Solar Domestic Hot Water systems in the Upper Valley since 1980. Not photovoltaics (solar electricity). Not panels for heating your home. We have installed over 75 Solar DHW systems because using the sun to heat tap water is by far the most cost-effective way to harness solar energy, and simply the cheapest way to heat water, period. We've put in batch heaters, drain-down, drain back, evacuated tube, flat plate, selective surface, site-built, flush mount and remote rack configurations. They each have their advantages and disadvantages in different situations, but we've been around for the maintenance and repair of these and other installers' systems and have seen what works.

We are not tied in to any one brand or type, but usually recommend a flat-plate copper collector array with a loop to a heat exchanger in the storage tank. By reading temperature sensors in the collector and tank, the electronic controller knows when heat energy is available for collection and it turns on the circulator, pumping an anti-feeze solution through the loop, transferring heat from the solar collector on the roof to your tap water in a storage tank in the utility room. It's a proven, evolved technology; it's not very high-tech, but IT WORKS! and will continue to do so dependably for many years with a minimum of maintenance. Copper and glass last, and most of the components are made in the USA, off-the-shelf and will be available long after SolarGizmoCo, Inc. has gone out of business.

The collector array and storage tank are sized to fit your house and is usually optimized at providing 70% of your particular annual hot tap water needs. This means you are showering virtually for free in the summer and with a solar assist in the depths of the cold, dark winter. At current energy prices, and with federal tax credits and Vermont solar grant, the typical system pays for itself in savings in seven years, even if energy prices don't go up.

Contact Ted Emerson us by e-mail ted@southface.biz or phone (802) 484-3307 to have us fit a Solar Domestic Hot water system to your home.

This 27-year-old, site-built collector array was integrated into the roof design,
and still provides most of this home's hot water.

Collectors can be configured to fit almost any roof situation.