Whistler Mayor Installs Solar Hot Water System in Home

A Case Study

The solar hot water panel on the roof of Mayor Melamed's home.

Whistler Mayor Ken Melamed has a new reason to celebrate the sun — he’s recently installed a solar hot water system in his home. The project began last summer, with Melamed’s roof getting a new hairdo.

"When I thought about the fact I had the roof off, it seemed a good time to put the plumbing in that’s required for the systems," says Melamed. "We weren’t sure we’d put the panels on at that point."

He says his decision to install the entire system came after speaking with Taylor Munro, and learning that it was viable in our BC climate. "I was unsure about the ROI (return on investment) of solar hot water in our climate," he says. "But based on the contractor’s experience in BC, they’ve convinced me it’s worthwhile here."

While he’s happy with the end result he did admit to some big challenges along the way, mainly due to the fact that there are currently no SolarBC Registered Installers in Whistler, and Taylor Munro is based in Vancouver.

"We tried to do communication over the phone and email," says Melamed. "We had our local plumber try to install parts of the system which turned out to require some reworking and modification. It would have been easier had we had someone locally available."

He explained that there were also issues in determining where the solar panels were going to go on the roof, and that the solar analysis was difficult to do over the phone. As well, while his home builder was keen to support them with the install process, he didn’t have the expertise.

"I think this is relatively common," says the mayor. "Though becoming less so as energy efficient technologies become wider spread. But there’s a learning curve to bring the construction industry up to speed and get the capacity in the local communities. It would be better to have someone locally trained on site to do that analysis."

He also thinks installs will become easier to retrofit when there’s more standardization and local builders have more experience with these types of installation. "I’d absolutely do it again," he assures, "but like anything the first time you do it there’s a learning curve and then it’ll get easier. It’s always about knowing what questions to ask ahead of time to make the process go more smoothly."

He says that over the course of the year they hope to see their energy bills reduced as a result of pre-heating, and the free heat from the sun, to supplement their hot water tank. But right now, due to the extreme winter conditions the solar panels are buried under snow.

"I was hoping the snow would slide off so that’s been our first challenge – to figure out how to keep it exposed," he says. "But I’m not worried about it."

Mayor Melamed says it’s something he would recommend because he believes it is a positive addition to his house, and – while still too early to tell – thinks the cost is reasonable and the ROI worthwhile.

"I think it’s important to do so as to increase awareness and as more people do it, it becomes more affordable and a normal way of doing business. Although I think governments could do more to help incentivize this program so we have a more rapid acceptance of this technology and more up-take."