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Kearney business offers solar panels to reduce bills

If ever there’s a time utility bills go up for use of more hot water, these frosty days of winter are it.

Kent Mohler Exteriors has a solution.

While the Kearney business specializes in siding and windows to help you aesthetically conserve energy, the company is now offering solar panel energy for hot water.

Kent Mohler and Adam Jardak of Kent Mohler Exteriors went through classes in Wisconsin last month with the Midwest Renewable Energy Association to learn how to install the solar panels. They said the system offers quick savings.

“This is one thing that can pay you back real quick,” Kent Mohler said.

The federal government offers a 30 percent tax credit with no cap.

“It’s the one renewable energy thing they’ve proven that the initial homeowner will see a return on his investment,” Liz Mohler said. “It’s that fast of a payback.”

The solar panels preheat water in a 40-gallon storage tank (for a four-bedroom house) before it goes into the existing water heater tank. Jardak said that’s what makes this system efficient.

“Wind and stuff like that, there’s moving parts, but there’s a long time to pay back,” Kent Mohler said.

The payback is within five years, they said. The panels will outlast a roof with routine maintenance, which just includes changing the antifreeze periodically, they said.

“You go anywhere else, places in Wisconsin, like Milwaukee, it’s big, solar is big up there, it’s coming this way — we thought we’d get a leg up on it,” Kent Mohler said.

The two panels are installed after an assessment. The panels need a good “solar window” of constant sunlight from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily. The panels can be installed on the roof or ground. They use a solar path finder to do this.

“The first thing you have to do is find south,” Jardak said. “This path finder actually shows the path of the sun all 365 days of the year.”

Next they need to determine if there is room in the utility room for the extra water storage tank and a good route from that to the solar panels.

Even with a streak of cloudy days this still works, the solar system can handle 75 percent of the load, the rest is done by the original system on cloudy days.

“It doesn’t take a whole lot of sun,” Jardak “That’s why the solar panels with the hot water system are the most efficient.”

Kent Mohler Exteriors is in the process of installing solar panels on one house in Kearney. Snow has delayed the process, but once they complete it they expect to have an open house to showcase the system to the community.

For more information, call Kent Mohler Exteriors at 628-4049.

Kearney Editor Kevin M. Smith can be reached at 628-6010 or kevinsmith@npgco.

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