According to a 12-month study conducted by engineering consulting company Battle McCarthy, Conserval's SolarWall solar air collector can displace over 50% of the total heat energy used in industrial buildings.
Battle McCarthy monitored the newly retrofitted 410 square-meter SolarWall system at the CA Group Roll Mill in County Durham, U.K., from April 2006 to March 2007. The study showed that the system reduced the demand for the conventional heaters by 27,260 cubic meters of gas, or 303,543 kWh. This is equivalent to a 51% decrease in gas consumption, when compared against the previous year's usage.
The SolarWall air heating system heats the ventilation air that is required in commercial and industrial buildings using a patented unglazed perforated collector, Conserval says.
