Lakota Solar Enterprises

Benefits of Supplemental Solar Air Heating

for Native American Communities of the Great Plains

How Solar Air Heating Works

There are three basic types of solar energy installations: solar air
heating, solar water heating and solar electric (photovoltaic)
systems. The solar heating systems provided by Lakota Solar
Enterprises (LSE) and Trees, Water & People (TWP) are solar
air systems, which use the sun’s energy to heat air from inside the
house and return the hot air to the house.

These systems provide supplemental heat to homes where they are

A LSE solar heating system installed on
installed; that is, they supplement the families’ other sources of the Pine Ridge Reservation. The size of
heat (electricity, propane or wood stoves) by providing heat for the solar collector panel is 4 x 8 feet.
pennies per day, whenever the sun is shining. The solar heating
systems do not produce electricity, and they do not have the capacity to store heat for use during
the night. If a home is well-insulated, however, some of the heat produced during the day will
remain in the house after the sun goes down.

Lakota Solar Enterprises is an independent 100% Native American

owned company. LSE works in conjunction with the non-profit
organization Trees, Water & People, which provides marketing and
business development assistance. LSE’s solar heating systems are
manufactured and/or assembled at the Red Cloud Renewable Energy
Center – a facility they own on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South
Dakota and the solar heating systems are installed by LSE staff. They
cost approximately $2,000 per system, including installation, with
various parts and material kits available for lesser amounts.
Side view of solar heating
The main component of each unit is a four-by-eight-foot solar collector
system, showing ducts for air
intake and return panel, made of a black metal absorber plate covered by a sheet of
special solar glass and surrounded by a metal frame. The absorber plate
used in LSE’s panels utilizes a specialized, highly efficient surface that absorbs short-wave solar
radiation. As the absorber warms up to a temperature higher than the ambient temperature, it
gives off a great part of the accumulated solar energy in form of long-wave heat rays. In order to
reduce energy loss through heat emission, these efficient absorbers have a selective surface
coating. This coating enables the conversion of a high proportion of the solar radiation into heat,

Highway 18, Community #4, P.O. Box 1609, Pine Ridge, South Dakota 57770
Phone: (605) 441-9200, Email: lakotasolar@gmail.com
simultaneously reducing the emission of heat. Selective coatings include black chrome, black
nickel, and aluminum oxide with nickel.

When the system is installed, the collector panel is mounted next

to the south side of the house, where it absorbs heat from the sun.
The mounted panel is connected to the house by two air ducts
(supply and return). A 60-watt electric blower inside the wooden
frame pulls cool air from the house into the collector panel.

The air is heated inside the panel and then returned to the house
through the return duct. The blower is regulated by a thermostat
located inside the house. Whenever the air inside the collector
panel is warmer than the temperature set on the thermometer,
the blower turns on and warm air (=/>110 degrees F) is pushed
into the house.
The system’s only moving part, a 60 watt
“squirrel cage” blower fitted with 6” duct
work, draws cool air from the house
through the solar panel and pushes the
heated air back into the house.

Expected Energy, Cost and Pollution Savings

Energy Production

The amount of solar radiance available in a given location varies, depending on latitude, climate
conditions and the positioning of the collector panel. As a Department of Energy Consumer
Guide advises, “active solar heating systems are most cost-effective when they are used for
most of the year, that is, in cold climates with good solar resources. They are most
economical if they are displacing more expensive heating fuels, such as electricity, propane,
and oil heat.”1 Southern South Dakota’s Reservation communities meet all of these conditions
and are ideally situated to take advantage of solar heating. As this map shows, despite its cold
winters, southwestern South Dakota receives amounts of solar radiation comparable to areas
much further south, including the Gulf Coast of Texas.2

1
A Consumer’s Guide to Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, U.S. Department of Energy website:
http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/consumer/your_home/space_heating_cooling/index.cfm/mytopic=12490
2
U.S. Solar Radiation Resource Maps, Atlas for the Solar Radiation Data Manual for Flat-Plate and
Concentrating Collectors, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

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The amount of available solar radiation is increased if flat-plate collectors are tilted at the angle
of latitude. To optimize the amount of radiation available in winter, as is desirable with heating
applications, the LSE collectors are tilted at the angle of latitude (44 degrees in South Dakota)
plus 15 degrees. The chart below shows the amount of solar radiance available to these solar
collectors, in kilowatt hours per square meter per day and in British Thermal Units per square
foot per day. 3 The column showing the BTUs per month per heating season, applies an
efficiency factor, taking into account that solar collector panels cannot convert 100% of the solar
energy they receive into heat. 4

3
Solar radiance data is taken from Solar Radiation Data Manual for Flat-Plate and Concentrating Collectors,
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
4
LSE’s solar collectors have not yet been tested and certified by an independent agency (The State of South Dakota
does not require certification.) This efficiency factor (.488) has been measured for another collector panel, made by
Rural Renewable Energy Alliance in Minnesota (http://www.rreal.org/). Their panel is similar to LSE’s and uses the
same absorber plate material: microtherm, manufactured by Alanod /MiroSolar (http://www.mirosolar.com/).

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 Calculated Monthly & Annual Output for Solar Air Heating Systems
in South Dakota Useable
BTUs/sq.ft. during
Solar Radiance, Rapid City, SD, facing Average number of month, assuming
south, tilted at latitude + 15 heating days in .488 efficiency
Month kWh/m2/day BTUs/sq.ft./day month factor
Jan 4.0 1269 31 19194
Feb 4.7 1491 28 20371
Mar 5.2 1649 31 24953
Apr 5.2 1649 24 19318
May 5.0 1586 15 11610
Jun 5.2 1649 3 2415
Jul 5.5 1745 0 0
Aug 5.8 1840 0 0
Sep 5.7 1808 6 5294
Oct 5.2 1649 19 15294
Nov 4.1 1301 27 17136
Dec 3.7 1174 31 17755
Total BTUs/sq.ft. per heating season 153339
Total BTUs produced per system (with 32 sq. ft.
panel) per heating season 4906833

Cost Savings

Heating costs throughout the U.S. increased more than 40% between 2000 and 2007. These costs
have a disproportionate effect on low-income families, who must spend a much greater
percentage of their income for heating: families receiving federal assistance with heating costs
spend on average about 15 % of their income on home energy bills, as compared to 3.4 % for all
other households. This is especially true for Native Americans in reservation communities,
because they often do not have access to more economical energy sources, such as natural gas;
instead they must resort to using propane or wood stoves as their main source of heat. According
to the 2000 U.S. Census, 70% of Pine Ridge and Rosebud households use propane to heat
their homes, versus only 22% of all South Dakota households. Between 2000 and 2007, the cost
of propane has risen at more than twice the rate of natural gas – an astonishing 79%.

As shown in the chart above (Calculated Monthly & Annual Output for Solar Air Heating
Systems), one solar heating system with a 4 x 8 foot solar collector produces 4.9 million BTUs of
heat during one South Dakota heating season. Propane produces 92,000 BTUSs per gallon of
fuel burned; however, propane furnaces are not 100% efficient. Assuming a 65% efficient
propane furnace (the average for a pre-1992 furnace), a homeowner would need to burn 82
gallons of propane – enough to produce 7,548,974 BTUs – in order to produce 4,906,833 BTUs

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of actual heat. At $2.10 per gallon, the current price of propane in the Midwest,5 these families
would save $172 this year by using supplemental solar heat.

As home heating costs inevitably continue to rise and reach or exceed last year's record prices,
savings will increase correspondingly, while the solar heating system continues to produce heat
for pennies a day for the lifetime of the system (20 years or more).

To illustrate this, the makers of the SolarSheat 1500G Solar Air Collector, 6 equal in size to those
made by LSE, provides this return-on-investment graph. 7

This SolarSheat graph shows that the savings from a solar heating system can recoup the cost
(payback) in four years. For a one-panel SolarSheat system that costs $2,000 the payback time is
seven years.8 After that, savings will continue to grow to over $30,000 over the next 18 years.

The percentage of a home’s heat load that will be replaced by supplemental solar heat is more
difficult to predict with certainty. A number of variables affect a building’s heat load, including

5
Energy Information Administration/Short-Term Energy Outlook -- March 2009, Table WF01, Selected U.S.
Average Consumer Prices and Expenditures for Heating Fuels During the Winter.

6
The Canadian government includes the SolarSheat in its list of solar air collectors eligible for government rebate
on its ecoACTION website: http://www.ecoaction.gc.ca/ecoenergy-ecoenergie/heat-chauffage/v2008/collectors-
capteurs-eng.cfm. SolarSheat is also promoted by Xcel Energy through its HomeSmart Solar Program, which
“distributes and installs residential solar units that help lower energy usage, and create a sustainable environment.”
http://www.homesmartcolorado.com/services.html.
7
Graph found at: http://www.vanrenewable.org/SolarSpaceHeating.htm#Payback.
8
Simple payback Table & Cumulative Savings Graph – SolarSheat Series Products,
http://www.g2power.com/files/solarsheat/ROI_SolarSheat.pdf .

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its size, configuration, level of insulation, quality of windows and doors, surrounding building,
trees and windbreaks, and the habits and preferences of the inhabitants. However, expectations of
15 to 30 percent savings are reasonable. For example, the state of Oregon requires solar air
heating units to reduce space heating needs by at least 15%, in order to qualify for a renewable
energy tax credit.9 APS (Arizona Public Service Co.), which provides financial incentives for its
customers who install solar space heating, notes that “Solar space heating systems are typically
designed to handle anywhere from 30 percent to 70 percent of your space heating needs.”10

According to the DOE’s Consumer’s Guide to Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, “[Solar
heating] systems providing less than 40% of the heat needed for a home are rarely cost-effective
except when using solar air heater
collectors that heat one or two
rooms and require no heat
storage.”11 Using a low-cost, easy-
to-install, low-maintenance system
that does not require a complicated
storage system is exactly LSE’s
strategy in providing solar heat to
Native Americans in South Dakota
and across the Great Plains. The low
up-front cost of LSE’s solar heating
systems, combined with their
longevity, make them more cost Solar heating system at a typical mobile home on the Pine Ridge Reservation
effective than larger systems which
could store heat and supply over 40% of a home’s heating needs.

LSE’s systems are specifically designed to be appropriate for the generally smaller-than-average
housing stock found in Reservation Communities. The average single-family home size in the
U.S. is about 1,700 square feet.12 This “average” home, heated with propane, would have used

9
Solar Space Heating Tax Credit,
http://www.oregon.gov/ENERGY/RENEW/Solar/docs/SolarSpaceHeatingSunChart.pdf.

10
Incentives for Residential Solar Space Heating, APS (Arizona Public Service Co.),
http://www.aps.com/main/green/choice/choice_83.html
11
A Consumer’s Guide to Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, U.S. Department of Energy website:
http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/consumer/your_home/space_heating_cooling/index.cfm/mytopic=12490.
12
In 2005, the median square footage of single detached and manufactured/mobile homes in the U.S. was 758
square feet. American Housing Survey for the United States: 2005, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development, Office of Policy Development and Research; U.S. Department of Commerce, Economics and
Statistics Administration, U.S. Census Bureau.

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approximately 800 gallons of propane during the last heating season. The 82 gallons of propane
this household would replace with energy from the sun by using an LSE system would represent
just over 10% of its heating costs. The majority of Reservation homes, however, are smaller.

Many are “single-wide” mobile homes, 1,200 square feet or less. Many others are older “trailer”
homes, made decades ago, measuring only 12 x 60 feet, with less than 800 square feet of living
space. For homes like these, 82 propane-gallons worth of solar energy can save them 15 to 25%
of their yearly heating costs.

This is the case with the Little Thunder home on the Rosebud Reservation. In 2006 TWP and
LSE installed a solar heating system for the Rosie Little Thunder family, as part of the Rosebud
Sioux Tribe’s Little Thunder Clean Energy Education Project (CEEP). The house, which was
heated at that time entirely with electric baseboard heat, is fairly new and bigger than many
Rosebud houses. During the next heating season (2006-2007) the household used 20% less
electricity than the previous season.13

Little Thunder Electricity Use

Comparison of monthly kilowatt usage during heating season (Oct - Mar)
before installation of supplemental solar heating system
with kilowatt usage after system was installed in October 2006

Month Month
(before heater (after heater
installation) kWh used installation) kWh used kWh saved % Savings
Oct 2005 1551 Oct 2006 1092 459 30%
Nov 2005 2382 Nov 2006 1266 1116 47%
Dec 2005 2682 Dec 2006 1182 1500 56%
Jan 2006 2082 Jan 2007 2058 24 1%
Feb 2006 2013 Feb 2007 2952 -939 -47%
Mar 2006 2052 Mar 2007 1701 351 17%
TOTALS 12762 10251 2511 20%
Note: We do not know the cause for the anomolous spike in electricity usage in February,
2007, but believe the system was not in use that month and in part of January. If February is
left out of the calculations, the total electricity savings is 32%.

13
In 2007 the CEEP Partnership installed a photovoltaic solar electric system, small wind turbine, and wind-break
and shade trees at the Little Thunder home. These added variables make comparisons of subsequent years less
useful.

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Pollution Reduction

The amount of pollution prevented through the use of solar heating systems depends on the type
of fuel being replaced. Creating heat with a propane furnace or by using conventionally
generated electricity increases the carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. Burning propane
produces 12.7 pounds of CO2 per gallon. Using an LSE solar heating system for one year, saving
82 gallons of propane, would prevent the release of 1,041 pounds of CO2. Coal-generated
electricity (as most of South Dakota’s electricity is) produces even more CO2. The amount of
electricity saved by one year of solar heat represents over one metric ton of CO2 that will not be
released.

For additional information please contact:

Henry Red Cloud

Proprietor
Lakota Solar Enterprises
P.O. Box 1609
Pine Ridge, South Dakota 57770
Phone: (605) 441-9200
Email: lakotasolar@gmail.com

or

Richard Fox
National Director
Trees, Water & People
633 Remington Street
Fort Collins, Colorado 80524
Phone: (970) 484-3678
Email: richard@treeswaterpeople.org

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