http://www.switchkingston.ca/wiki/ 2010-08-04T11:58:50-04:00 http://www.switchkingston.ca/wiki/ http://www.switchkingston.ca/wiki/lib/images/favicon.ico text/html 2010-08-03T09:16:38-04:00 Pierre Nadeau http://www.switchkingston.ca/wiki/doku.php?id=opportunities:sdhw_conventional_tank&rev=1280841398&do=diff Overview Yes. Your conventional hot water tank must stay in your home, although you could change it for a tankless water heater. SDHW systems are normally installed as pre-heaters, preheating the cold water that supplies your conventional water heater. The energy savings provided by the SDHW system depends upon how close the temperature of the cold water is raised to the hot water heater's delivery temperature. The closer the temperature to what the conventional heater is set to attain, the mor… text/html 2010-08-03T09:13:26-04:00 Pierre Nadeau http://www.switchkingston.ca/wiki/doku.php?id=tracker&rev=1280841206&do=diff Pierre Nadeau Irradiance gain by tracking Solar irradiance, or the intensity of the light reaching the Earth, is dependent on the sun’s angle of elevation. Solar radiation is always at highest on a plane that is perpendicular to the sun’s ray. As the azimuth and the elevation angle change throughout the day and the year, the incidence angle of the solar radiation varies constantly on given areas. Orienting panels to keep them facing the sun can achieve significant energy gains in comparison of… text/html 2010-07-19T13:17:00-04:00 SWITCH http://www.switchkingston.ca/wiki/doku.php?id=start&rev=1279559820&do=diff A move from “traditional” energy sources to ones that produce little or no greenhouse gas emissions is required by the Global Warming Situation/Crisis. Whether we can succeed, how fast we must change, how we should accomplish and promote change, and many other interesting questions will NOT be addressed here. Other groups can do that far better than we can. What we will try to do is offer reliable, verifiable, high-quality information to help purchasers and users of renewable energy equipment ma… text/html 2010-07-19T08:58:40-04:00 trina lewis http://www.switchkingston.ca/wiki/doku.php?id=a-how_to_workshop:workshop-intro&rev=1279544320&do=diff A series of workshops on renewable energies towards homeowners have been organized by SWITCH members. Through year 2009, four sessions have been respectively presented in March, April, June and October. All events have been presented at St-Lawrence College in Kingston. Each workshop session was made of 4 evenings presentation: text/html 2010-07-16T17:38:24-04:00 Jean York http://www.switchkingston.ca/wiki/doku.php?id=biomass&rev=1279316304&do=diff poker en francais Biomass Biomass , a renewable energy source, is biological material derived from living, or recently living organisms, such as wood, waste, and alcohol fuels. Biomass is commonly plant matter grown to generate electricity or produce heat. For example, forest residues (such as dead trees, branches and tree stumps), yard clippings and wood chips and garbage may be used as biomass. However, biomass also includes plant or animal matter used for production of fibers or chemical… text/html 2010-06-30T08:17:13-04:00 Mark Gibson http://www.switchkingston.ca/wiki/doku.php?id=microfit:financing&rev=1277900233&do=diff Overview SWITCH is working with the Queen's Applied Sustainability Research Group and various other groups are working to convince financial institutions of the unique low-risk profile of solar FIT installations. As well, some vendors offer pre-arranged financing. As this information comes to our attention, it will be listed here. text/html 2010-06-10T11:15:03-04:00 Ted Hsu http://www.switchkingston.ca/wiki/doku.php?id=fit:fitintro&rev=1276182903&do=diff Overview The FIT program is a part of the Green Energy Act. It assigns different payment rates (tariffs) for electricity generated by amount and by technology (effectively differentiating types of producers). The FIT program is for Ontario electricity generated by installations rated at over 10kW (see the microFIT program for smaller installations).