When Free Hot Water’s installer clients and developers want to use our engineering, design and permitting services for apartment buildings or any other solar water heating application, our engineering department will almost always need the 
same key list of information about the building to begin and execute the design process.
To give our clients a better overview of what information is needed, we’re now making available the below initial site evaluation checklist, which can also be downloaded here. In addition, the form will always be available on the design services page of our website.
This checklist should address the needed information for most solar thermal applications. Once we receive this information, our team will quickly be able to create accurate and complete design, engineering, and permit drawings for you and your solar thermal projects.
Here’s what we’ll need:
SITE LOCATION:
- Building address
- The year in which the building was built
- Number of floors
- Locations of any buildings or trees that may cast shade on panels:
- Building’s footprint with dimensions
- If storage tanks are to be placed outdoors, we will need the dimensions of the area where tanks are to be located (adjacent structures, etc.)
- Please provide images of the building from the side view
ROOF PLAN:
- Roof height
- Roof dimensions
- Roof slopes (for example, 4:12), hips, peaks and valleys
- Locations & footprint dimensions of all rooftop equipment to be avoided (hvac, vents, skylights, etc.)
- Please identify any rooftop equipment that may cast shade on solar panels
- Roof framing information (size and locations of roof framing members, roof deck type, etc.)
- Please provide images of the roof section where the collectors are going to be installed.
IF STORAGE TANKS ARE TO BE LOCATED INDOORS:
- Plan dimensions of all walls outlining mechanical room
- Location and size of all wall openings (doors, windows, louvers, etc.)
- Location and size of all mechanical equipment to remain (boilers, pumps, tanks, machinery, washers, dryers, wall-mounted equipment, etc.)
- If tanks will be mounted on an existing slab, we will need slab information (depth, reinforcing, etc.)
- Call out pipe diameter of city water inlet and domestic hot water outlet to the building
- Ceiling height in order to ensure that the room’s height is adequate for tank clearance
IF REQUIRED BY BUILDING DEPARTMENT:
- Please provide the elevation view(s) of building (with dimensions, or in a scalable format)
INTERNAL CONTROLS
- Do the controls need to be tied into the building controls or can they operate independently?
We hope this form will clarify all the needed information to begin. Don’t forget that we also have many useful online solar thermal calculators that installers can use, as well. If you have any more questions, of course, please contact us.
