Great article. Thanks for posting it. It's nice to see solar power being used in commercial settings, especially in the Midwest, even if the motives are financially based.
Vegan Diva | Homepage | 08.02.06 - 1:46 pm | #

Great article! If a laundromat can heat their water with solar, everyone in America should be able to. This place is in Chicago, where it is freezing for 5 months out of every year!

Thanks for the story.

David
The Good Human
David | Homepage | 08.02.06 - 3:25 pm | #

There are a number of large commercial solar systems that have been installed in the Chicago area.

Governor State University in University Park, IL has a system that heats an olympic size pool and hot water for showers. It has the ability to heat over 4,300 gallons of water daily and is the largest solar thermal system in Illinois.

Spin World Laundermatt in Rockford, IL just had a system installed last week that can heat almost 700 gallons of hot water daily.

Resurrection Lutheran Church in Chicago just installed a small hot water system (because they don't use very much water). Fox News covered the story.
http://www.myfoxchicago.com/myfo...TY& pageId=3.1.1

Solar Service is the company that is installing these systems and their website has lots of interesting articles and photos.
http://www.solarserviceinc.com
Sarah Feinstein | 12.12.06 - 10:38 am | #

Thanks for chiming in, Sarah... I did a post on a Chicago-area laundromat using solar hot water heating... not sure if it's the same one.
Jeff at sustainablog | Homepage | 12.13.06 - 5:53 pm | #