Wisconsin sock maker adds solar hot water.
No greenwashing here.
"Do something genuine, not phony," said Bob Chesebro, president of Wigwam Mills, located in Sheboygan, Wisconsin.
The family-owned business wanted to make a positive impact on the environment, but also have the whole thing make financial sense.
With a solid and speedy 8-year payback, the project proceeded with approval.
Award-winning project.
The project was the recipient of the prestigious Sustainability Energy Efficiency award from the Wisconsin Green Building Alliance.
Also, Wisconsin's Focus on Energy published a case study of the installation for other manufacturing plants to study and learn from.
They concluded that we are a new breed of solar contractor -- since we use both engineering and licensed contracting.
Innovation in design.
The job wasn't without difficulties.
With the plant closed on weekends, the question of what to do with the excess solar heated water -- and possible overheating -- became paramount.
Our answer? Drainback. This became the first commercial drainback system of its size in the Midwest -- and quite possibly the US.
