MEADOWS:  Solar Job continued
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tangle building) that there own construction crews and even some building inspectors got lost occasionally and couldn't find the ,job.  "But after all," joked Moshe Shtrauch, the company's construction vice president, "once you were able to fine the boilers, the rest was easy."  Not all that easy, though.  A huge crane could pick up a tank, swing it around and drop it into place -- if the crane could be brought close enough.  Several times it couldn't so, "We took 'em the rest of the way with a high-low," Ellis said, explaining that a high-low is a sort of  big forklift.
nMost were put on supporting cradles at ground level but there were three buildings where there was no place to put the tanks.  So Environmental Solar designed and build steel cradles to hold the tanks at the second-floor level.
n"To get adequate support." Shtruach said, "we had to bore and secure footing five to six feet below the concrete walkways and tie them in very securely to the building foundations."
nAdding the spice to the punch, these elevated locations were between building, with only a foot or so of clearance on either side, making for a delicate job maneuvering the crane to put them in place.
nAfter the tanks were all in place, Environmental Solar build shed-like frame-and-stucco encloses for them.  Today (the installation was completed last June) the earth tone 
paint has weathered to match the buildings, the plantings have grown up and unless one were told, he would never think the hugh tanks were there.
nThe solar collector panels were another and a different sort of problem.
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nnAlmost all the third-floor apartments at the Meadows have open-beam ceiling supported by large but irregularly placed cross-beams.  Furthermore, half of them have what Ellis called "gull-winged" rooflines; that is, two parallel ridgepoles, running generally north and south,
with the roofs sloping down to east and west, leaving a gully in the middle.
nnSince the solar panels must face almost due south, they couldn't be placed directly on the roofs.  Instead, Environmental Solar had to design and build racks to bridge the gullies and hold the panels.
nnTo get firm footing and proper distribution of weight, the installers had to cut out three inchs of urethane insulation, lag the metal footing into the supporting beams and "hotmop" to complete the seal.  "The roof preparation took two to three times as long as usual," Shtrauch lamented.
nnOne of the things Ellis emphsized is Ring Brothers' generally known history of dedication to quality, both material and aesthetic, in its products over more than 20 years.
nnBob Smith, president of Ring Brothers' management company, touched on that in a statement.  His firm is a fee for service company that oversees Meadows among about 7,000 apartments and high rise condominiums, office building and shopping centers.  He added:  For a long time we wanted to do something about rising emergy expenses.  But we were frankly concerned about the aesthetic impact of solar and other cinservation measures, so we held back until we were completely comfortable with the comcepts and companies involved.
nnOver a 3 year period, Ring Management reviewed proposals from and interviewed more than 80 solar companies.  Environmental Solal was finnally chosen to build the major part of the Meadows installation, with William Yank & Associates, Burbank, and Energy Conservation, Torrance, named to draw up the blueprints and inspect the projects.
nnAltogeather, Ring Management is installing solar water heating in more than 3,500 apartment units.  Current projects of Environmental Solar for Ring include Mariners Village, where the firm is solarizing about a quarter of the 1,200 units, and Marina Harbor, about 800 units, both in Marina Del Rey.
nn"We had a lot of misgivings about solar initially," Smith concluded, "but now that we have proceeded, I am happy to say that we have been able to achieve the dual goal of energy reduction and preservation of existing aesthetic standards.  "My only regret is that we did not start sooner."
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