SOLAR TODAY - March 2011

ed, the crew installed thermal-expansion joints — basically flexible, u-shaped copper braided pipes — under the collectors.

“The interesting and cool thing is that we
ran the pipe before installing the panels,”
said Morehouse. “That minimized the visual
impact, which was important with a historical
building like this, and also provided thermal
expansion.”
The large system presented some balance-
of-system challenges, as well. SLP worked with
a Canadian firm to size two heat exchangers.
According to Morehouse, “The redundant
heat exchangers allow [the Plunge] to run both
most of the time, but they have the capabil-
ity to shut one down for maintenance and still
maintain service.”
The pool’s mechanical systems are a nice
complement. “It’s fantastic how the pool pump’s
variable-frequency drive helps us maintain
the necessary flow rate despite the additional
restriction caused by the heat exchangers,” said
Morehouse. “They can use the pool pump itself
to provide the specific flow-rate requirements
and help us maintain a nice, low temperature
difference across the heat exchanger.”
The installation itself was pretty standard,
according to Construction Superintendent
Jonathan McChesney. “They reroofed the
whole building and had done all of the seismic
engineering beforehand, so the installation was
pretty straightforward — just a lot of posts,”
he said.