Quality site seasonal report, Eisenhower Museum, SFBP (Solar in Federal Buildings Program) 4008, March 1985 through September 1985

Abstract

The active solar Domestic Hot Water (DHW) and space heating system at the Eisenhower Museum was designed and constructed as part of the Solar in Federal Buildings Program (SFBP). This retrofitted system is one of eight of the systems in the SFBP slected for quality monitoring. The purpose of this monitoring effort is to document the performance of quality state-of-the-art solar systems in large federal building applications. These systems are unique prototypes. Design errors and system faults discovered during the monitoring period could not always be corrected. Therefore, the aggregate, overall performance is often considerably below what might be expected had similar systems been constructed consecutively with each repetition incorporating corrections and improvements. The solar system is a retrofit, designed to supply part of the space heating (and reheating for humidity control) load at the museum, located at President Eisenhower's boyhood home in Abilene, Kansas. The small DHW load is also served by the solar system. The museum and adjacent library entertain approximately 200,000 visitors per year, and require controlled temperature and humidity for preservation of artifacts. The summer reheating load for humidity control is comparable to the space heating load in winter. The solar system has 110 US Solar flat plate collectors with a gross area of 4201 square feet, using ethylene glycol as the collector fluid. The energy from the collector loop is transferred to two 1980 gallon storage tanks via an external heat exchanger. Solar energy is used for DHW preheating and for space heating. Highlights of the performance monitoring at the Eisenhower Museum during the period March 1985 through September 1985 are summarized in this report.