Just as President Barack Obama steps up his campaign for energy efficiency, the
Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC) celebrated the opening of its new Hot Water
Systems Laboratory in Cocoa.

Water heating is the second largest home consumer of energy, and the performance of
some systems on the market today have never been tested under realistic and extreme
weather conditions. Testing in the lab will help provide answers the solar industry,
utilities and home builders are looking for to increase energy efficiency.

"This project is an important part of Building America's goal of zero energy
buildings by year 2020," said Robert Hassett, the U.S. Department of Energy¿s Solar
Heating and Cooling Technology Manager. The U.S. Department of Energy¿s Building
America Program funded the lab at FSEC, a research institute of the University of
Central Florida.

The facility, which opened on Wednesday, will be a hub to test solar, tankless and
conventional domestic water heating systems for efficiency.

"Solar water heating is an excellent way to save energy on water heating and reduce
whole-house energy use, but utilities are specifically interested in knowing whether
or not solar is providing relief to the power grid during peak times. Our testing
will answer their questions," says Subrato Chandra, the Building America
Industrialized Housing Partnership project manager. This information is key to
utility "buy-in" to more aggressively sponsor solar water heating systems.

This side-by-side testing will evaluate the impact of systems on the utility power
grid according to time-of-day usage, and will also enhance and validate simulation
models for solar water heating systems. Danny Parker, principal investigator noted,
"Solar integrated collector and storage (ICS) systems, where the storage tank is on
the roof and sensitive to weather, have never been verified before, only simulated,
so we¿re interested in seeing how they work particularly on winter mornings."

Seven systems are currently responding to the same conditions and schedule of use to
compare their energy performance and time-of-day electric loads. Over 90 channels of
data are being collected. This flexible facility will evaluate how the water heating
systems perform without the influence of family usage habits.

"Our tests are performed under more realistic, yet controlled conditions. We're
using real inlet water temperatures and varying the quantity of water being used,
something that hasn't been done before," says Carlos Colon, task leader of the project.

The seven systems currently being tested are:

1.  Standard 50-gallon electric water heater

2.  40 sq. ft. collector/80-gallon tank flat plate direct solar water heating system
with a differential-controller

3.  32 sq. ft. collector/40 gallon integrated collector storage (ICS) system with a
standard 50 gallon electric tank for backup

4.  40 sq. ft. collector/80 gallon tank flat plate PV-pumped direct solar water
heating system

5. 40 gallon conventional natural gas water heater

6. Tankless natural gas water heater

7. Tankless electric water heater

Current tests will run for a full year under its current configuration with the
option of testing additional systems.

The Florida Solar Energy Center, a research institute of the University of Central
Florida, is the largest and most active state-supported energy research institute in
the country. Current divisions and their research activities include Advanced Energy
Research: alternative transportation systems, hydrogen fuel and fuel cells;
Buildings Research: energy-efficient buildings; and Solar Energy: solar water and
pool heating and solar electric and distributed generation systems. For more
information about the center, visit www.floridaenergycenter.org or call
the FSEC Public Affairs Office at 321-638-1015.