Solaire Homes Office Building, Bend, Oregon
Truly Awesome

Cascade Sun Works was approached by Solaire Homes to design and install a state of the art heating and cooling system that was efficient as well as a product showcase for the type of equipment that they install in their new homes.  The result is a total package that saves over 107,000 kWh of electricity per year - a  truly awesome achievement.

The building starts with a tight envelope with plenty of day lighting and high efficiency lighting.  A 6 kW grid tied photovoltaic system was installed to offset some of the electrical loads.  This system uses 36 Kyocera 170w PV modules and two PV Powered 2800 XV inverters.  A remote monitoring package has been included on this equipment.

The heating system is revolutionary in the marrying of several existing technologies that when combined with a control system designed by Cascade Sun Works make this system an energy miser.  Primary heating is from radiant floors on both levels.  The radiant floor obtains heat by first using solar resources, then from an air to water heat pump and finally as a back up the Takagi Instantaneous Hot Water Heater that is also the back up for the domestic hot water for the building.  The building is also equipped with air conditioning that is also supplied by the air to water heat pumps through four Lifebreath Clean Air Furnaces.  The Clean Air Furnaces have a built in HRV that supplies ventilation to the building keeping the air fresh while recovering over 70% of the energy of the air being exhausted.

This closed loop radiant floor system includes an outdoor reset for energy conservation with direct injection from both the heat pump buffering tank as well as the heat exchanger from the solar and Takagi.  Wirsbo TruFLOW series manifolds were installed for the various zones throughout the building.  Integrated controls automatically decide which heat source to use under different heating and cooling situations.

The Solar Hot Water system includes four Heliodyne Gobi 410 collectors and a DayStar exchanger coupled to 240 gallons of storage.  The solar system pre-feeds the Takagi for domestic hot water as well as feeding the radiant floor.

This system qualified for State of Oregon Business Energy Tax Credits as well as Energy Trust of Oregon incentives.

Click on any photo for a larger view Solaire Homes Office Building Thermal Collectors, Heat Pumps Air to Water Heat Pumps HVAC Controls Lifebreath Clean Air Furnace Solar Hot Water System Radiant Heating SYstem Radiant Heating Lifebreath piping Main Reception Area Conference Room Installation of Radiant Equipment Solaire Homes Office Building Solaire Homes Office Building Solaire Homes Office Building Radiant Heating Ducting Installtion Lifebreath Clean Air Furnace Four Gobi 410 thermal collectors Air to Water Heat Pumps Three York 5 ton heat pumps Three Aqua Products Chiller Units Part of control system showing remote mounted thermostats and interface controls. One of four units DayStar Heat Exchanger Unit on left. Takagi T-KD20 Instantaneous hot water heater. Pumps for Air to Water Heat Pumps on rear wall by floor. Solar storage tank on left, heat tank buffering tank on right. Radiant secondary manifold with partial controls. Zone valves. Piping in mechanical room to Lifebreath Clean Air Furnaces. Rough-in plumbing for floor manifold One of four units . Solaire Homes Office Building