Kent Cabinetry's New Facility

---

April , 2012 In fall of 2011 we have moved in a newly constructed building located at 105 Flat Iron Square Rd, Church Hill.
When designing our new shop, one goal was to reduce our energy consumption. To do this we made the shop super insulated and then installed a solar heating system. The system worked so well that our heating bill for the first winter was zero. This is for a 3700 sf. shop with 11' ceilings! We were also able to air condition the shop with only a five ton compressor, half the normal size!
did all this because in our old shop we were paying $5,000 to heat in the winter.
To achieve this we used Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs) as walls. It is a composite of an insulating layer of rigid foam core sandwiched between two structural facings, similar to look of plywood. Not only do SIPs create a tighter building envelope, with higher insulating properties, but construction time is generally less than for a frame building.
The shop's ceiling has 16" of insulation, and floor is insulated with 2" of foam and aluminum foil. The water heated by solar panels is stored in two 1500 gallon insulated tanks located under the building and is distributed by manifold through the PEX tubing that runs under the entire floor. The pump turns on when the water in the tanks registers 10 degrees cooler than the water up above. Hot water in the bathroom is delivered from the tanks as well.
The complete system was around $42,000.
We have received $13,800 in grants from various agencies, bringing the actual cost down to $28,200.
We figured that a regular heating system would have run around $15,000, so we spent an extra $13,200.
As an added attraction, the system is extremely quiet and very comfortable.