Author Archives: Mike Holm

Updated rebates

Posted on May 1, 2010 by Mike Holm

 Well, I knew the day would come.  History repeats itself.  The progression of solar in Canada is a tough one. It has usually been a Liberal government that sets in place some progressive rebates or support for solar thermal and … Continue reading →

Posted in Government policy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

PVThermal

Posted on March 27, 2010 by Mike Holm

PVThermal panels are not new.  There has been a lot of research done on them in Europe and the US since the 1970s, but they have been a niche market. Now is the time for the system to gain some prominence. … Continue reading →

Posted in Solar panels | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

See us at Toronto Green Living Show

Posted on March 27, 2010 by Mike Holm

Boss Solar will be at the 2012 Toronto Green Living Show in April from the 13rd to the 15th. We will we showing the Analog Energy combination PV and hot water collector. This system takes the excess heat from the … Continue reading →

Posted in Upcoming Shows | Leave a comment

Current Federal Government Decisions

Posted on October 30, 2009 by Mike Holm

Solar support in Canada has always been an on again/ off again proposition. While there is a great amount of interest in solar, we know that most of the sales of PV and to a lesser extent solar thermal need … Continue reading →

Posted in Government policy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Tankless water heater output

Posted on June 26, 2009 by Mike Holm

I am constantly finding companies (contractors, not manufacturers) who advertise that the tankless water heater they install will give you 7-8 gpm of hot water when heating from 10C to 50C (122F). Sorry, but this  should not be believed. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Tankless Water Heaters | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

The importance of expansion tanks

Posted on June 13, 2009 by Mike Holm

No solar system can run without an expansion tank.  But many water boiler installers and engineers have no idea how to size an expansion tank for solar. It is often believed by many engineers and contractors new to solar that an … Continue reading →

Posted in Designing solar heating systems | Tagged | 4 Comments

Flat solar collectors verses tube collectors

Posted on June 12, 2009 by Mike Holm

There are a lot of vacuum tube collectors (i.e. solar panels) available on the market these days, and there is definitely a lot of misinformation out there. I shall try to rectify this to some extent. “Vacuum collectors are more … Continue reading →

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Solar water heater economics

Posted on June 10, 2009 by Mike Holm

I have about 20 years in the solar business as well as installing high efficiency boilers and floor heating. In the 90s when there was cheap gas and oil, most people who were in the solar business were true believers, … Continue reading →

Posted in Efficiency and Economics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment