Innovation fund - YMCA Wainui Park, Christchurch
The YMCA Wainui Park, Christchurch has installed a 13m2 Apricus solar water heating system onto the ablution block of Wainui Park. The system services the new cabin camping area, which has cabins for up to 110 guests.
The new system uses solar water heating as a pre-heater to an LPG continuous flow water heater. This combination of solar and gas means that the water is only heated on demand, saving energy and money.
The system was supplied by Switch Energy Solutions, installed by H2Flow Plumbing and Heating Ltd, and the architect/designer was Russell Devlin of Solarchitect Ltd.
The YMCA is a charitable trust which has a mission statement of building strong children, strong families and strong communities. This camp is a leader in its field and in 2005 won New Zealand's Best Outdoor Education Facility award.
An average of 12,000 people stay at Wainui Park for two or more nights each year. The YMCA Christchurch wanted to show leadership by minimising the camp's impact on the environment and positively influencing people's attitudes and choices regarding sustainability.
The YMCA runs the Project Promise programme which provides environmental education to campers as part of their Wainui Park school or holiday camp experience.
Building on these Project Promise activities, the camp is now able to offer schools the opportunity to take part in a ‘sustainability challenge' competition where schools compete to have the smallest carbon footprint per person during their stay at YMCA Wainui. A key contributor to this measure is using the camp's solar water heating system effectively. Campers have done this by not showering in the middle of the day, minimizing showering on cloudy days and by reducing the length of their showers.
The YMCA reports that they are very happy with the performance of their solar water heating system. The combination of solar and gas means that they no longer run out of hot water during peak times and a conservative estimate is that they are saving around $340 per month on their electricity bills.
Although the financial savings are appreciated, the YMCA believe the primary benefit of their solar water heating installation is the opportunity to educate and influence the thousands of school students who visit the camp annually to be more aware of the impact that they have on the planet, and to teach them the difference between renewable and depleting energy sources.
