Marathon Renewable Energy invited to attend energy audit training

The Wisconsin Energy Conservation Corporation (WECC), the parent corporation behind Focus on Energy, typically only offers one Energy Auditor training course per year - usually in the spring. But this year, due to a push from the Feds, they decided to open up an additional session in the Fall - invitation-only.

We're proud to announce that Dan received his invitation this week and will be attending the training in October. Upon completion, he'll be qualified as an Energy Auditor in the State of Wisconsin - thus bringing an additional, much-requested service to our Central Wisconsin customers!

Too bad about the sales tax...

Well, looks like we'll have to wait another couple years for the sales tax exemption for solar and other renewable energy equipment. Governor Doyle went ahead and passed the bill.

You can't win 'em all!

Sales on renewable energy equipment are now slated to become tax exempt on July 1, 2011.

Success

We filled Al Henrick's solar loop on Saturday night. Night is best to prevent steam from forming. The big delay was running the electric power to the pumps from a remote PV panel. Today was the first sunny day after filling and the system worked flawlessly. By the time I left around 1:30, standard time not daylight time, the tank was around 120 degrees F. The coldest water off the bottom of the tank was 114 degrees, and the heat exchanger was returning 124 degree water to the center of the tank. This was a cold start since the system had never run before, and the starting temperature was around 55-58 degrees.

It was interesting to listen to the pumps slow down and speed up as clouds reduced the output of the PV panel and then moved away. I worked on the insulation for a little while, and the tank rose from 84 degrees when I arrived around 11:00 standard time to the 114 degrees I mentioned earlier by the time I left. The storage tank holds 105 gallons, so this is a substantial rise in temperature. All we need to do now is finish up insulating the elbows and other fittings, and then install jacketing on the exterior insulation to protect it from UV rays and we are DONE!

Dan Michelsen