Green building takes a big step forward in Queens, NY. World-renowned piano manufacturer, Steinway & Sons, is quickly making its factory a showplace for alternative heating and cooling systems by installing a rooftop solar installation.
The roughly $900,000 project, which is expected to be completed in May, was funded in part by a state grant of $588,000 and should pay for itself in a brief four and a half years.
The solar installation works by trapping the sun’s rays in seven rows of 300-pound, curved mirror panels installed on the plant’s 27,000-square-foot roof. The mirrors focus the light on a tube in the center of each panel, turning water into steam. The system will heat the 400-employee building in winter, cool and de-humidify the plant in summer, and be powered by natural gas on cloudy days.
Now about those rare woods and veneers…
via: ny daily news photo credit: steinway & sons
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