Starting this spring, the "Best Western Inn", located in Kelowna, B.C. now uses solar energy to heat up the hot water for its 147 rooms, the two hot tubs and the 90'000 litre swimming pool. The 102 solar panels and heat recovery system, installed by Swiss Solar Tech provides enough heat to cover even 95% of hot water in Summer and 70% hot water in Winter.

In addition to the solar technology, the system also recovers wasted heat from the hotel's air conditioner to help heat the water in Summer. It is believed the installation of the panels and holding tanks makes it one of the largest solar thermal installations in Canada. The solar panels, manufactured in Switzerland, are known as the most effective panels when it comes to solar water heating. Greg Salloum, the owner of the "Best Western Inn" Kelowna, is always trying to be innovative when it comes to the environment. He expects the savings to pay for the system in six years. Because Greg Sallloum has taken this step, 90 tons of carbon dioxide that would have been created by burning natural gas will not go into the atmosphere.

Greg Salloum, owner of the Best Western Inn Hotel, Kelowna BC:
The hotel's owner, Greg Salloum, says for years he's thought about alternatives to fossil fuels for heating water. "When the hotel decided to use heat from the sun, we also looked for additional sources of free heat. We found wasted heat coming from the hotel's 100-tonne air conditioner - and decided to use it "If we go to deregulation (provincially), our utility costs will probably go up. I don't think anybody predicts that they will drop. It's also a great return on investment in many other ways," says hotel owner Greg Salloum. "The solar system can be used as a marketing tool, which will attract guests and brand the hotel for eco-tourism."

Our costs for the 102 solar panels on the roof are $165,000, but by savings $32,000 a year the set-up pays for itself in 5 years. Such installation can last for 50 years, so there are many years of savings. The Okanagan gets over 2,000 hours of sunshine a year, yet we were paying the gas company for energy to heat our water. With this solar installation, we will use less fossil fuel, prevent over 90 tons of carbon dioxide going into the atmosphere annually and attract environmentally conscious guests. The next phase is more heat recovery using the waste hot air from the exhaust fans and maybe some geothermal pipes for a ground source heat pump system to decrease our reliance on natural gas even more."