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Solar heating panels on UOP School of Dentistry in San Francisco, CA

      In the mid 1970s there was quite a boom in solar heating interests. A lot of development took place in
solar technology in the Santa Clara Valley (Silicone Valley) of California. As Superintendent of Buildings
and Grounds with UOP School of Dentistry, and responsible for energy management, I took an interest
in the subject of solar heating.
      In 1976 I and a colleague designed and built the first solar hot water heating system on a high-rise
building in San Francisco.

San Francisco

This image shows the University of the Pacific School of Dentistry in the Pacific Heights district of San Francisco.

UOP SOD

Not as high but still considered a high-rise, the building is nine stories (including parking) and about 400,000 sq. ft.

Solar support

We built the solar panel framework on the roof between the mechanical room wall and the window cleaning scaffold rails.

A solar heating system

I made this schematic of the solar system to show how the water moves through the system as it is heated.

The solar panels

The solar panels, are installed on the south facing side of the roof.The 32 panels are enclosed to reduce wind loading.

Payback

This graph shows the usage of natural gas from 1976 to 1978. The 1978 saving in gas cost was almost $4,000. over the previous year.

The solar tank

The solar storage tank is gas fired for back-up. Hot water from the panels circulates through the main storage tank and the back-up heater tank. The gas heater only operates if there is no sunshine to heat the water.

Circulating pump

The solar circulating pump moves water through the solar panels and the storage tank. The pump is controlled with a Δ T control box mounted on the wall near the tank. When there is heat on the panels the pump operates.

Some of the piping

Pipng which allows the water to flow through the solar panels and the storage tank is shown. The flange-like fitting is the heat exchanger from the boilers. The boliers are only needed for building heat on cold days.

Larry's solar panel

Here is a mini solar panel that I built as a learning experience. It is made of copper flashing material and copper pipe. I tried it out as a heating source for my daughter's wading pool. It worked quite well.