Solar-heated apartment building in the works

TRURO - If all goes according to plan a new 47-unit apartment building, heated by the sun, will be accepting residents by the end of next summer.
"The objective here is for us to pull about 43 per cent of our heat needs off of solar," Noel Taiani, vice-president of Fairwyn Developments Ltd., told the Truro Daily News. "I'm very excited about the solar, I can't wait to pull that switch."
The company is receiving $60,963 from the Department of Environment to design and install a large storage capacity solar hot water system. The announcement was made Tuesday in Truro.
The apartment building, which will be one of the largest in Truro when complete, is under construction at 9 Braemar Ct., near the Nova Scotia Community College in Truro. The four-storey building is about 50,000 square feet.
Taiani said it would store heat in a 10,000 litre concrete storage tank.
"We run this heat coil up past 1,350 solar collectors and what they do is basically transfer the radiant heat from the sun and heat this coil," he said. "This coil comes down through the building into the tank and heats up that water."
The storage tank is integrated into the building. It is about 12 feet wide by 12 feet long and 10 feet high.
It is expected to cut heating costs in half.
While residential properties are using solar energy it is suspected this is one of the largest projects of this nature in Nova Scotia.
"It wouldn't have happened without this provincial money," Taiani declared.
"I think this is a real direct use of this type of money for what it's needed for. We simply could not go ahead with the design and the construction of this system without these types of grants."
The building will use oil-fired hot water as its second source of heat.

jmalloy@trurodaily.com