The benefits of installing renewable energy have always made sense to the owners of this home. The family of four has installed three different systems, and see renewable energy technology as a great way to save money. Having a large home, they reduce their electrical bills by harnessing renewable heat from the sun and earth. They would have also installed a wind turbine, except they would have needed two, and the cost was too high, so they decided to wait and see how their friend’s turbine worked. By the time they saw how well it worked, the demand and price for turbines was even higher.
Comfort and price were the homeowners main concerns. However, they are aware that most electricity in New Brunswick is generated with fossil fuels, and they saw reducing their carbon footprint as an added benefit. The homeowners also believe the re-sale value of their home is improved by their two solar hot air collectors, geothermal heat pump, and solar hot water collector.
The homeowner’s solar hot air collectors have different heating capacities, and although they work in the same way, the larger Solar Max collector had to be installed on an angle. According to their installer, who suggested the collector can heat approximately 186 m2 (2000 sq. ft.), installing it on an angle increases its efficiency, especially December through May. To demonstrate the output, the installer measured the temperature of the hot air output from the Solar Max at 30.0 °C (86 °F). A control unit allows the homeowners to turn on the Solar Max fan to blow hot air into the house.
The smaller Cansolair collector was installed at a 90° angle facing the southern sky. According to the manufacturer, the automatic fan control begins to blow hot air from the collector into the home at when it is 43.3 °C (110 °F) and stops when the air is only 32.2 °C (90 °F).
The solar hot air collectors provide heat to the upstairs bedrooms, but most of the home is heated with a geothermal heat pump. The homeowners removed their air-source heat pump in favour of the more efficient ground-source heat pump. The optimum heat pump fluid temperature, 
according to their installer is 12.8 °C (55 °F), and the homeowners were happy to report that the ambient ground temperature in Midgic is exactly that. The heat pump gathers heat from the ground by circulating non-toxic glycol through a closed loop of pipe in six 46 m (150′) deep wells, which returns to the home at a higher temperature than it left. The heat pump forces air over the warm coils through ductwork to circulate heat through the house. According to the homeowners, for about 30% of the time the furnace is running, it is only distributing the heat more evenly throughout the home.
The homeowners did not stop there. They have been impressed with the performance of their two solar hot water collectors. A pump connected to the collectors, which is powered by a 20 W photovoltaic panel, circulates non-toxic glycol through the solar collectors, where it is warmed, to a heat exchanger, which transfers the heat collected from the sun to their hot water storage tanks. They use one electric hot water tank for back-up, and one tank for storing hot water from to the solar collectors. However, the solar collectors work so well that when the electric coil in the hot water tank broke, it took three weeks before they noticed, because their solar hot water collector was providing plenty of hot water!
