Lake Forest Family Dentistry proudly announces the the creation of the first totally solar powered dental facility in the United States. Our facility can generate over 200,000 watts of electricity every day which is more than enough to run everything from the lights to the computers to the electricity that powers our dental instruments. It is a gift which we intend to give to our patients and to our future generations. It is great to know not only have we minimized our impact on our environment right now but also we will likely be energy independent well past the year 2050!

I am often asked if the lights go out when the sun goes down or when it gets cloudy? Well if we weren't connected to the electrical grid they would. However we use the electrical grid as essentially a backup when we are not producing enough electricity from the sun. This is called a "grid tied" system. In the end we intend to supply so much electricity to the grid during the day that we have excess to use throughout the night. In the end though we intend to average out using zero! 

When it is hottest during the months between June and August we will produce the most electricity because the sun stays up longer and higher in the sky. We will typically get a solid 12 hours of production during these months. Between November and February we produce the least electricity usually 6-7 hours a day. Fortunately our winter electricity needs in the winter are less because of our mild climate. It is really a perfect marriage for solar in the Sunshine State and it works very well for our facility!

For the technologically inclined we operate a 34 KW Sonali Solar PV system consisting of more than one hundred and thirty polycrystalline panels each producing 285 Watts. We use several Sunnyboy Inverters which are connected to the grid and to the internet and to a display monitor in our reception area. Patients can see in real time our hourly, daily and yearly production figures. We also have displays showing the amount of pollution we have avoided sending into the atmosphere. One can also see the amount of money we have saved since going live. It's pretty neat to see what is happening and really a great thing to explain to the younger children who are actually getting information which will help their generation.

So patients don't have climb up to the roof for a tour we have done a drone flyover and some videos of what is going on "up top". You can find them on our website at www.smileorlando.com. We hope that you'll check them out. Lake Forest Family Dentistry strives to do the right thing both inside and outside of the dental office!