Photo: Flickr/HavenHolidays
California residents not only have a reputation for being green, but they also have a reputation for staying fit.
Large health club chains have hundreds of locations, with members taking showers, soaking in hot tubs, and swimming laps in pools. Then there’s washing all of those towels. …every day. Of course, all of these activities have one thing in common: hot water. Lots of hot water.
The case for installing solar hot water at a fitness center is very simple:
- The monthly water heating bill alone for a single California fitness center can be $4,000 a month–or more. The amount will vary with every location by its members, showers, pools, etc, but the utility cost will always be significant due to constant hot water needs.
- Natural gas prices are only going to rise over the next few decades. Thus, whatever your cost is now, it’s only going to go up. If you plan to be in business at the same location for the next decade or two, read on.
- Fitness centers are typically large warehouse-like buildings with flat roofs and minimal to no shading. Perfect for installing solar collectors on empty roofs that have no other use.
- When a solar hot water system is sized and engineered correctly, 80% of a sports center’s annual gas water heating costs can be eliminated. No joke.
- Between California’s new rebate, the Federal Government’s 30% solar investment tax credit, and other tax considerations, the payback period for a system can be under 5 years.
- Consequently, after 5 years? 80% of the fitness center’s water heating costs are saved.
- Did I mention the green PR benefits, saving tons of carbon emissions?
I know there are going to be skeptics out there since this blog post is written on a solar hot water site, but Free Hot Water is an engineering company first and foremost. We not only design our own solar collectors, but pride ourselves in being accurate with our designs and estimates.
If you own or manage a sports fitness center, all we can say is contact us and get a free estimate. We’ll show you all of the numbers and include all of the rebates and tax incentives. Then you can decide if it makes sense. In the worst case, you lose a few hours and get educated about solar hot water. In the best case, …you save a lot of money over the next 25 years and help the environment.
Thanks.
