Residential
Solar Hot Water Projects
A Partial List for the Kansas City Area

Affordable Homes Use Solar Energy
Ann Brandau-Murguia, Argentine Neighborhood Development Association worked with Bob Solger at The Energy Savings
Store, to prove that solar can work for all types of homes. Together they worked to install solar energy in four affordable homes in Kansas City. The effort won a Kansas City BPU
Green Build award in 2010.

The Energy Savings Store installed solar hot water units,
Solatubes for natural light, SolarSheats for space heating,
and solar attic fans on several homes. Other energy saving features include improved insulation, vapor barriers, and
spray foam around the homes’ rims.

Architect Leverages Solar Energy
Tracy Stearns, a principal with 360 Architecture, was familiar
with the benefits of solar energy, and wanted to explore
ways to leverage solar power in his home office. Solar can be used to create electricity, heat potable water or swimming
pools, or heat air. Tracy decided to take advantage of two of these applications in his home studio office in Linwood,
Kansas, and brought in his friends from The Energy Savings
Store to install a solar PV and solar water heating system.

The solar water heating system uses an evacuated-tube technology by ThermoMax. This 5kW system heats all the
water used in the home, with a backup system available in
cases of extended cloudy days or extremely heavy use.

Home Builder Partnerships
Janet Chapman wanted to build a new home that included
solar thermal radiant floor heating, solar hot water and straw bale construction – not something the average home builder
in the Kansas City area has done before. She was thrilled to
find Greg Rothers at Rothers Design/Build. Greg had
experience with straw bale construction and had previously partnered with The Energy Savings Store on solar projects.

Together, we built radiant-heated floors using solar energy
and a solar hot water system. The water piped through the concrete floors is heated by 4 Heliodyne solar panel collectors mounted on the south wall of a detached garage. The
pre-heated water is stored in two tanks. Janet also uses it for normal domestic hot water purposes.

Net-Zero Energy Farm
The Green Dirt Farm, located just north of Kansas City in
Weston, Missouri, is a small community-based farm dedicated
to producing healthy food in a sustainable environment. The entire farm complex was designed to be a net-zero energy farmstead, producing 100 percent of the energy for the
operation using a combination of solar and wind. Chris
DeVolder, the home’s architect, calls it “the greenest house
in the Midwest, possibly in the country.”

In addition to wind and solar electricity, solar thermal energy
is also used to heat the potable water in the home. A 5kW SunEarth glazed panel solar water heating system was
installed by The Energy Savings Store to heat water in a
120 gallon tank, enabling the owners to use very little energy
to heat water used both personally and in the farm operations. Solar water heating systems typically reduce energy use by
up to 80 percent.