Considering how much water it takes to clean your car, you may not think car washes are all that environmentally friendly — however one man is aiming to change all that. Gregg Mercede, owner of the Greenwich Avenue Solar Car Wash in Stamford has worked with Skyline Innovations to install 18 solar panels on the roof of the building in order to heat cold tap water. The warm water is then pumped and squirted onto dirty cars that roll along the car wash’s automated conveyor belt, while other machines apply soap, liquid waxes, wheel cleaner and rinses. Speaking to the Stamford Advocate, Mercede said he’d opted for solar power because “we’re here for the long run. We wanted to provide the very cleanest cars while having a positive impact on the environment.”
Mercede said the building’s solar thermal panels work with another set of 24 photovoltaic cells to cut the car wash’s energy consumption by about 50 percent. He added that the solar energy also powers the car wash’s lights, heat, air-conditioning and car-washing equipment. Mercede’s car wash isn’t just environmentally conscious – it also makes good business sense: he says that the lower energy consumption helps keep his own costs down, so his prices can be competitive.
Washington, DC-based Skyline Innovations installed the car wash’s solar panels and company owner Mike Healy said you can expect similar sites in the future. “It’s a great application for solar heating technology,” he said. “We are hoping to put solar equipment in a lot more car washes in Maryland.”
+ Greenwich Avenue Car Wash
Via Stamford Advocate
Photos by Skyline Innovations
It’s great to see that CT business owners are adopting these technologies as a way to enhance their services. I have to tell my parents to go to this carwash!
How about our Baltimore based green car wash:
http://www.cantoncarwash.com/
Where does the greywater go? Is it just flushed down the drain like all our good drinking water we use to flush toilets? Are they using soaps and cleaning/waxing agents made from safe biodegradable resources rather then cheap ones derived from fossil fuels and synthetics? As its great to source some renewable energy to warm the water. Its still a huge polluting and wasteful business to clean a car.
Washing cars at the Greenwich Avenue Car Wash in Stamford is much safer for the environment than washing for example in your driveway.
This car wash recycles most of its water by reclaiming it through an advanced system that triple filters it, treats the underground tanks with Ozone and an wastewater inoculate. It uses biodegradable soaps to wash vehicles. The small amount of extra water that does need to be discharged does so to the sanitary sewer where it is then treated again.
Washing a car at home has many concerns. Firstly the runoff goes into the soils or storm drainage systems. You’ll use a lot more water too than a car wash like this. This car wash consumes less than 5 gallons of fresh water per wash. At home you’d probably use around 50-100 gallons.