WAPATO, Wash. -- Noah’s Ark, the Lower Valley’s only homeless shelter, should see a welcome drop in power bills thanks to a solar water heating system installed by two Yakama Tribal School students and two community members.
“We’re very excited,” said David Hacker, executive director of Generating Hope, the nonprofit agency operating the facility. “Lots of people use hot water at the shelter. It’s going to help with our bill a great deal.”
The students and community members installed the system as part of Heritage University’s engineering program, which teaches about solar heating systems and conducts free installations.
“The focus of the program is to give students experience in installing solar hot water heating systems,” said engineering instructor Dan Sisk. “We’re always looking for installation sites. Noah’s Ark asked and it seemed like they could benefit and it seemed like it worked out well.”
Situated at 117 E. Second St. in Wapato, the shelter serves about 30 men and women a night, providing meals, showers and a place to wash clothes and sleep.
The system installed there Friday cost about $3,000 and was purchased with an educational grant secured by the university, Sisk said.
Solar panels were secured to the roof of the shelter, and a water tank and control panel were installed inside the building.
Water flows through the panels where it’s heated before returning to the tank and supplements the building’s electric hot-water heater.
Sisk estimates the solar system will cut the cost of heating water from 25 to 30 percent. The shelter’s average monthly electrical bill is $500, Hacker said.
“In the summer time, the solar system is going to heat it up enough so the electrical system doesn’t have to come on at all,” he said. “These systems are particularly efficient, even in the winter time they work every well.”
Any effort to reduce costs is welcomed, especially since the shelter didn’t receive a share in the $1.9 million in homeless grants that the Yakima Valley Conference of Governments plans to give to several other area service providers,
“We continue to go month-to-month to keep this place going,” Hacker said. “But we’ve been here 10 years, so that’s a good thing.”
Hacker said the solar panels are just another earth-conscious effort the shelter is making.
Currently, the shelter grows its own vegetables.
Eventually, Hacker said he’d like to erect a village of permanent houses, possibly made of straw bales using green energy, and grow an organic garden.
“But that’s a long-term project somewhere down the road,” he said.
