Environmental Friends

Environmentally Friendly

    * our products are made from recyclable materials which are more environmentally friendly and also require less conventional energy to manufacture
    * the heart of our solar heaters is the special solar radiation absorber that we developed and which imparts outstanding solar performance to our solar heaters. This solar radiation absorber has a very long service life and is recyclable, this way it does not have a detrimental effect upon the natural environment
    * we use in our workshop less than 0.2 kWh of conventional energy to manufacture one square metre of solar collector - this low consumption is unparalleled
    * our solar heaters protect the environment because less pollution is produced when manufacturing them than when using fossil fuel to supply the energy they would give throughout their working lives
    * the high efficiency of our solar heaters results in smaller necessary equipment and therefore reduced stress upon the natural environment
    * using solar energy does not produce greenhouse gases but reduces them; for example, it is estimated (the Department of Mines and Energy of the Queensland Government) that a good domestic solar hot water system can prevent 2.5 tones of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere each year
    * all aspects of the environmental impact are reduced in the case of our products.


Environmental Impact

There are three main aspects relating to the environmental impact of our society: additional heat, greenhouse gases and heavy metals.
Additional heat

is produced by burning fossil fuels when generating the power or heat needed for domestic or industrial use. This additional heat, that would not be produced naturally, raises the temperature of the Earth and induces changes in the climate that are destructive for both nature and for our economy.

There is no additional heat produced by using solar energy because the solar radiation would otherwise just warm up the ground.

It is very difficult to calculate the total quantity of energy used to manufacture a complex product because of the long manufacturing chain. Additionally, there are large quantities of energy involved in the transport of materials. However, it is well known that the complex process of metal fabrication needs more energy than manufacturing plastics. Generally, the simpler and the lighter the object - the less energy was needed to manufacture it.

Our workshop uses less than 0.2 kWh of conventional energy to manufacture one square metre of solar collector - this low consumption is unparalleled.
Greenhouse gases

(mainly CO2) are produced when generating heat through the burning of coal, oil and natural gas. These gases increase the thermally insulating properties of the atmosphere, thus diminishing the loss of heat of the Earth to outer space; the result is an increase in average Earth temperature and the generation of climatic disturbances.

Very large quantities of greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere when producing heat from electricity because thermal power plants work with low efficiency; about 10 times more coal must be burnt to generate heat from electricity than by producing that heat directly from coal.

The main environmental advantage of using solar energy is that it does not produce greenhouse gases. For example, it is estimated (the Department of Mines and Energy of the Queensland Government) that a good domestic solar hot water system can prevent 2.5 tones of CO2 being released into the atmosphere each year.
Heavy metals

- copper, zinc, tin, chromium, nickel, silver - are amongst the most important pollutants and, unfortunately, are still the materials which are mainly used in the manufacture of solar energy devices. Because these metals are poisonous, health regulations have been enforced to limit the concentration of these allowed in our food and drinking water.

Large quantities of heavy metals result as waste in the process of obtaining copper, brass or stainless steel metals (at mines, smelters, refining plants, metallurgical plants). This waste also results from the manufacturing process of old-type solar energy devices. When the life of such devices ends and they is discarded, their decay continues until they disintegrate and free the heavy metals contained.

A solar energy device protects the natural environment if less pollution is produced when manufacturing it than when using conventional energy to supply the energy it would give throughout its working life.

For decades, solar energy devices were mainly made out of metals with a substantial proportion of heavy metals. Heavy metals are used in the construction of the absorber plates, heat exchangers, the valves and fittings, the hot water tanks and the jackets.

We changed that by using polymers (plastics) as the main building materials of our solar energy devices. Plastics do not corrode and have better mechanical properties than expected. They can be obtained from many organic substances, including renewable substances, and they can be recycled.

Our solar energy devices are very environmentally friendly as:

    * they save large quantities of fossil fuel because they have a good solar energy collecting performance
    * we use small quantities of conventional energy to manufacture our products
    * we use environmentally friendly materials