Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Program in Florida
Authors
Colon, Carlos
Curry, Jeffrey
Original Publication
Carlos Colon, Jeffrey Curry, Solar Thermal Billing Program in Florida, June 2002.
Publication Number
FSEC-RR-98-06
Copyright
Copyright Florida Solar Energy Center/University of Central Florida
1679 Clearlake Road, Cocoa, Florida 32922, USA
(321) 638-1000
All rights reserved.
Disclaimer
The Florida Solar Energy Center/University of Central Florida nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees,
makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy,
completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use
would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or
service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its
endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the Florida Solar Energy Center/University of Central Florida or
any agency thereof. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of
the Florida Solar Energy Center/University of Central Florida or any agency thereof.
SOLAR THERMAL BILLING PROGRAM IN FLORIDA
ABSTRACT per system averaged $12.50 for the year-long period ending
in December 2001. Daily hot water energy consumption for
This paper presents the development, implementation, and the 29 homes participating in the program totaled 9.2
results of Lakeland Electric's solar thermal billing program kilowatt-hours per day (kWh/day). Solar energy contributed
in Florida. The three-phase solar program was started in at least 5.3 kWh/day or 61% of the total hot water energy
1997 with funds from the Florida Energy Office (FEO) and used by the household. Electric energy consumption
the technical assistance of the Florida Solar Energy Center amounts to 3.4 kWh/day (39%). Incidentally, hot water
(FSEC). It was designed as a model to expand the concept energy used for the same period represents at least 15% of
of distributed energy generation, and to augment the use of the total house electric bill, of which 8% is now supplied by
solar domestic hot water (SDHW) systems. The solar renewable solar energy.
thermal billing program relies on the proceeds generated
from the sale of hot water energy. Twenty-nine SDHW 1. INTRODUCTION
systems, which are owned by Lakeland Electric (LE),
gradually began operation during 1999. Lakeland Electric 1.1 BACKGROUND
offered homeowners a direct active system comprised of a
40 ft2 (3.7m2) glazed collector and 80 gallons (302 liters) of In 1995, Lakeland Electric submitted a business proposal to
hot water storage. The tank is assisted by a single 4500 Watt the Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC) detailing the
heating element during periods of heavy hot water demand structure of a distributed energy generation program
or continuous cloudy weather. The solar system operates utilizing solar-thermal collectors (1). During 1996, Lakeland
independent from the utility grid, utilizing a 5-Watt Electric contracted a market research company (the Melior
photovoltaic module and direct current pump to circulate hot Group, PA) to conduct a solar water heating research study.
water. Billing for the hot water energy relies on a thermal- Positive results were obtained from the telephone survey,
electric metering approach. The metering requires a net which in most cases was analyzed by level of interest,
combination of the total thermal energy delivered and the household income and age group (2). The study
auxiliary heating energy consumption. Lakeland personnel demonstrated that 67% of the respondents in a total sample
(i.e. metering division) read the kilowatt-hour meters as part of 401 would have consider the use of solar energy. In
of their monthly routine activities. Net solar energy 1997, the first pilot utility-metered solar system was
consumption is then determined and incorporated into the installed. Lakeland Electric recruited those customers within
monthly electric bill statement of participating customers. its service territory by signing a non-binding contract
agreement for the hot water service. Solar system
Results from data collected during the last 16 months installations were rapidly incremented to 29 by September
indicate a varying degree of revenues which is dependent of 1999. Billing for use of solar hot water energy
on weather but mainly on customer hot water use. During commenced during December of 1999. Although billing was
the 12-month period ending in August 2001, the average manually executed at first, Lakelands solar billing system
consumption for the 4.2 person household reached 66.2 was fully implemented and automated into its billing system
gallons of hot water per day (252 liters/day). Revenues in July 2001. The electric billing system was updated to
generated from the sale of hot water are determined based include a solar service meter category into its data base (i.e.
on Lakeland's average electricity rate of $0.075 per kilowatt- FOCUS), for only those customers participating in the
hour (kWh). As a result, monthly net solar energy charges program. The process also involved the training of LE
meter reading personnel to enter the additional data into and contracts with the utility.
their handheld computers when en-route reading at the field.
TABLE 2: SOLAR SYSTEM INSTALLATION COSTS Net Solar ( kWh) = kWhTotal kWhElectric
4.2 HOT WATER CONSUMPTION AND SYSTEM 4.3 SOLAR THERMAL BILLING
PERFORMANCE
Once the solar thermal billing system was implemented,
During the period of September 1999 to July 2000, hot billing for the hot water energy service became a routine
water consumption for a sample of 27 customers averaged process. The Net Solar column in Table 4, displays the
67.5 gallons (255.5l). This average correlates to 4.2 persons typical average daily energies for the respective month of
per household, and it is slightly over the national average of the year (combined 2000-2001). The monthly average total
64.3 gallons per day (5). Figure 2 presents a frequency hot water energy consumption can be determined by adding
distribution chart corresponding to the amount of homes, the net solar and auxiliary kilowatt-hours. Net solar energy
and range of average daily hot water consumed. The chart reached the highest levels during June 2000 and 2001. In
indicates that 26% of these homes utilize between 60 and 70 turn, LEs solar thermal billing for 29 systems amounted to
gallons (227-265l) of hot water per day. Fifty-nine percent $479 and $438 based on Lakelands kilowatt-hour rate of
of the homes utilized at least 60 gallons of hot water per $0.075/kWh. The net solar fraction column represents the
day. Three customers with five and six persons living at the percentage of total energy contributed by the solar system.
premises utilized in excess of 100 gallons (378.5 l) of hot
water per day. TABLE 4: NET SOLAR AND AUXILIARY ENERGIES
AVERAGED BY MONTH
Figure 2: Customer hot water use distribution July 5.26 2.24 70.1%