Commercial Solar System

Pacific Energy Strategies can handle all your solar needs, whether residential or commercial. This picture is from the Newtown Estates Community Association and shows a 14 panel, 960 gallon storage system that will save over $500,000 over its useful life. Pacific Energy Strategies renovated the system in 2002.

Japanese Yellow Pages

The ONLY solar company on Oahu to cater to both local and Japanese customers.

re and grid capacity versus rolling reserve capacity

Believe me, I am a fan on any renewable energy or alternative energy that doesn't involve America's finest getting killed and killing overseas. I don't understand the biomass argument in Hawaii except where we can take untapped water reserves and develop some hybrid plants that grow like heck in red dirt and make good biomass sources. Or some algae type ocean resource. There are some very simple thermodynamics that are involved. Shipping wood in ocean freighters to biomass plants in Hawaii...I just don't see it making sense from an energy balance point of view, even if some strange mis-pricing of shipping costs made it make sense from a financial point of view.

At any rate, the guys in this article are just talking biomass, so maybe they have a good thing going. However, the known, good technologies that we have right now, that make proven economic sense, and that we could deploy in fairly good percentages of the overall usage in the next 5 to 10 years....well, they are here, they are ready.

Start of the Solar Blog

We started a solar blog to have an easy place to post useful solar facts, links, and guides on how to operate your solar system for the best savings.

Blogger Can Save You $250 Instantly!

The Importance of Solar Maintenance

Every 3-5 years you should do a solar maintenance on your solar system. Much like a car needs an oil change every 3,000 miles to run appropriately and efficiently, a solar system needs a maintenance every 3-5 years as well to maintain its efficiency and longevity. Important corrosion protection and safety equipment components such as the sacrificial anode rod and P&T relief valves should be renewed during this time, along with a visual inspection of all other solar components.

You can't get tax credits for repairs such as repairing a solar tank, but replacing a solar tank can cost almost as much as a brand new system once you consider the tax credits, so once you've put the effort into purchasing and installing a new system, make sure you take care of your money-saving investment!

This is what could happen when maintenance is never done on a water heater...









TIP OF THE WEEK: DON'T SKIP OUT ON YOUR REGULAR SOLAR MAINTENANCE! Flush out your system annually and make sure you call us every 3-5 years to replace the important components!

To PV Pump or Not to PV Pump (Conventional Controller and Pump)

Solar DC pump (also called PV pump) is a mixed bag.

The good:

You never pay to run the pump (free electric)—might be a buck or two a month.
The “control system” is elegantly simple…when the sun shines, is when the water is getting hot, and then the pump run automatically to bring the hot water down.

The Bad

If you go on vacation, its harder to control the maximum temperature or prevent overheating. We do add a switch so you can turn off the pump, though.
It costs $250.00 more than standard system.
The DC pump motors tend to have a little highly service rate than AC pump motors.
If inside a living space (laundry room or bi-fold door closet) they do make some noise that changes as clouds go by.

The Neutral
If you have the 120V plug in controller, even in power outage, you can just plug this into your computer UPS and you will be producing hot water.