Canada's Largest Solar Thermal Cooling and Heating Installation

The Solar Thermal System at Oxford Gardens:

Oxford Gardens is a recently renovated retirement home in Woodstock, Ontario. This 9,900 square meter building has 112 residents and 101 individual suites. A 90 ton chiller is currently used to air condition the facility and 3,000 litres of hot water are used on a daily basis. The solar cooling and thermal heating project presented by Proterra Solar and their German-Canadian consortium enables the management of the retirement home to achieve significant energy savings for their hot water heating, pool heating, space heating, as well as substantial savings in air conditioning through the absorption chiller.

The independent living retirement facility has created a resort style environment for the residents. The home features a swimming pool, theatre, sun room and large gardening and outdoor area.

The innovative project is proposed by a consortium of German and Canadian companies s-power, NARVA and Proterra Solar including local partners, such as Trigon Construction Management, Oxford Plumbing, and Zolarayz.

The up-to-date largest Canadian solar-cooling project has been awarded by the „dena Solar Roofs Program for Foreign Market Development 2009/10“. The program is coordinated by the Deutsche Energie-Agentur GmbH (dena) - the German Energy Agency - and is carried out in the framework of the „Renewable Energies Export Initiative“ of the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi). It offers comprehensive support for German solar energy companies wishing to enter promising export markets.

What is Solar Thermal Power:

Solar thermal installations consist of a solar thermal collector on the roof, a control unit with a pump and a potable water storage tank. The collector absorbs the light from the sun and converts it into heat. This heat is transferred to a liquid which circulates through the collector and down into the solar storage tank.