by Bea Peterson
The Riverside Laundromat & Car Wash on Church St. has ten solar panels on the roof of the car wash. They began hooking the system up for the laundromat in October 2007 and finished in January 2008. “Since January we’ve saved 1,100 gallons of propane,” said Bill Wyman. He and his wife Kristen have owned the facility for nine years. “We’ve been saving money for this for five years. Luckily we hit in front of the curve.” During those years Bill read all he could on solar panels then perused the internet for a contractor. Pete Skinner of E2G Solar in West Sand Lake emailed and offered to set up a system for them. The Wymans looked at panels he had put together on a goat farm in Shushan and were impressed.
Skinner, who has more than 30 years of experience in the field, knew NYSERDA (New York State Energy Research and Development Authority) was offering a half million dollars to ten small NYS businesses that wanted to convert to solar energy. He wrote a grant for the Wymans that was accepted by the Authority. He designed the laundromat system with input from RPI students and NYSERDA. The total cost of the project was $44,000. The Wyman’s investment was $27,000 and the NYSERDA grant covered $17,000. The couple saved close to $3,000 on the project with the help of Kirsten’s father Bill Grennan, Bill’s brother Don Wyman and the Wyman’s neighbor Steve Bellemare. “Pete thought we would get three panels up in a day. With the help of Bill, Don and Steve, we got all ten up in one day,” said Bill. After that Pete would leave them a list of things he wanted completed before his next visit, and Bill would see they were done. “It was a lot of work because we had to do everything after hours, after we closed, but it was worth it.”
The energy from the solar panels heats three 110 gallon water tanks and one 120 gallon tank off the furnace for a capacity of 450 gallons. The average water temperature is 150 degrees. “The system shuts off for safety at 170 degrees,” said Bill. NYSERDA monitors the temperature and humidity of the tanks at all times.
Two years ago the Wymans replaced the 1968 steam boilers, which had been converted to oil,
and replaced them with two Munchkin propane heaters that are as small as their name implies. The system was designed and installed by Joe Magisano and JP Conway. “When the State boiler inspector came in, he said he’d never seen such a clean job,” said Bill. He added, the new system is very efficient. “It used to cost us $4,000 a month for heat and hot water. Now our propane bill is cut in half.”
The water temperature from the storage tank is controlled by the Munchkins. If the water comes in at more than 120 degrees, a valve automatically mixes cold water in with the hot until it reaches the lower temperature. Should something go wrong with the system a monitor on the roof sets off an alarm that goes directly to NYSERDA.
Bill said the solar panel project “was costly, but I’m glad we did it.” His propane price increased 70 cents a gallon this year. “When we began the project, it was estimated it would take five years to pay for itself. Now, with prices going up, they’re saying it may only take four to four and a half years to reach that goal.” He’s glad they started the project last year because he believes they would have a long wait if they wanted to start it now since more companies are trying to cut rising energy costs.
Bill said, “Basically we’ve been trying to go kind of green all along without realizing that’s what we were doing.” Two years ago he replaced all the 20-year old car wash equipment. “With the new system we cut water consumption in half,” he said.
They recently replaced all the dryers in the laundromat with Swedish made Wascomat dryers. They have two 50 pound dryers for sleeping bags and comforters and fourteen 30 pound commercial dryers. The machines are rated 25 to 28 percent more efficient than the old ones. “They’ve only been in about a month,” said Bill. “We’re down about 80 gallons of propane. It’s hard to tell yet. I’m hoping it will be much more than that.” The price to use the dryers has remained the same.
The next project is to replace the 18 top load 30 to 35 pound capacity washing machines with front load low water usage machines that will hold 30 to 50 pounds. “We can get three larger capacity machines in the space of two we have now,” said Bill. The washers are Swedish made. “I’d like to buy American, but these are better quality. Other countries are so far ahead of us in conserving energy.” The basic cost to use a machine will remain the same for a cold water wash but will increase for warm water and again for hot water wash.
The solar panels have become a showcase for other businesses. Even more inspiring is the 50 percent tax break the government