Solar Laundromat Shines Bright

From ground level, Beach Solar Laundromat, a red brick building on Toronto’s Queen Street East, looks like any other laundromat, alive with the tumble of dryers and the slosh of washing machines. But an aerial view reveals eight solar thermal panels bolted to the roof. This is the source of the laundromat’s hot water.

The building was built in 1939, and there’s been a laundromat there since 1964. But it wasn’t until 2002 that Alex Winch, looking for an investment property, took ownership, transforming the business into an eco-conscious laundromat. When Winch first took over the property, the laundromat’s linoleum floor was cracked, paint was peeling off the walls, dust caked the lights, and the basement’s pipes and steel water storage tanks were uninsulated, leaking heat. To solve this, Winch decided to retrofit the property.

A bit of background: Winch is an engineer by trade and has always had an interest in renewable energy. “When I bought the building, putting panels on the roof and rebranding it as a solar laundromat just made sense as a fun project,” he says. “There really wasn't a precedent in terms of businesses that had taken a commodity product or service and rebranded them around a renewable energy attribute. So, it was unproven water.”

But Winch had done the calculations. Installing solar thermal panels would displace enough fossil fuels that he’d earn back 10% of the rate of return on his investment each year. The solar thermal panels paid for themselves within the first 10 years.

For the retrofit, Winch hired Solcan, a solar energy company out of London, Ont. to install the panels. He decided to go with solar thermal panels rather than solar photovoltaic panels because of the laundromat’s demand for hot water. Solar thermal panels convert the sun’s energy into heat, whereas solar photovoltaic panels convert sunlight into electricity. Thermal panels are also more efficient. Even today, thermal panels harvest approximately 70% of the sun’s energy while photovoltaic are only able to harvest 15 to 20%.

The thermal panels heat propylene glycol which, through a heat exchanger, heats the municipal water, depositing it into a water storage tank that feeds into the washing machines. Previously, the laundromat used a natural gas boiler to heat the water. Now, the natural gas boiler acts as a back-up to the thermal panels, heating the water in the storage tank only if the panels don’t collect enough energy. The retrofit cost Winch approximately $20,000. But through a solar thermal plan, Energy Canada paid 25% of the capital cost of the installation. (While that plan no longer exists, in 2024, the federal government introduced a new tax credit for businesses installing clean energy technology, allowing them to write off 30% of the capital cost.) 

After the retrofit, Winch saw his natural gas consumption drop by 30% per load of laundry, since the laundromat’s natural gas boiler no longer had to heat all of the water. He was also able to connect the hot water supply of the rental apartment he owned above the laundromat to the thermal panel system, getting rid of an old electric water heater. This combined with new energy-efficient fluorescent lights in the laundromat cut down Winch’s electricity consumption.

This meant his bills were cheaper, allowing him to keep laundry prices low—$3.25 for a load in a washing machine and $0.25 for six minutes in a dryer. The idea of using an environmentally friendly laundromat also appealed to customers. In the first 18 months after the retrofit, Winch saw his net revenue grow by 160%.

Tapping into this network of loyal customers, Winch has since introduced several community initiatives, serving those in need. The laundromat operates a pay-it-forward program where community members can anonymously pre-pay for others’ laundry costs. It’s an honour-based system with no income requirements. 

He also created a winter clothing donation. Winch introduced this after an unhoused individual stole a customer’s sweaters from the laundromat. Wanting to ensure no one in the community was cold, Winch installed a coat rack outside the laundromat where community members can hang donated winter clothing. The clothing is accessible to anyone at any time.

But maybe most surprising about the laundromat is that Winch is still using the same thermal panels installed more than 20 years ago. “The only maintenance that’s been required is one small pump that failed after about 10 years,” he says. “But that was an easy replacement and then we were back in business.”

Thermal panels are ideal for businesses that require a supply of hot water every day of the year, such as hospitals, manufacturing, and multi-unit residentials. They’re not great for single family homes, though. If the heat from the panels isn’t used every day, the propylene glycol can boil, causing it to acidify, ruining the panels’ copper.

For businesses considering a sustainable retrofit, Winch advises looking at the rate of return on the equipment they’re investing in. To make it worthwhile, the sustainable equipment—whether it be solar panels or wind turbines—needs to reduce their other bills (electric and natural gas) by enough that the money they’re saving will pay off their initial investment in the equipment within five to 15 years.

“But at the end of the day,” Winch adds, “it's a very positive marketing attribute for the business. Twenty-two years later, people are even more responsive to renewable-energy-focused companies than they were when I got this all set up.”  

Read about a solar-powered vertical farm near London, Ont.