solar water

[hav it]

how many of you chaps have been installing solar pannel water heating and cylinders. whats the install like to do.

 

[Corgigrouch]

They are a piece of cake to fit provided you like crawling about on a roof, I have always connected them to an unvented, don't know if you can connect to a vented system

 

[hav it]

what do you think of the hot water that they provide.

 

[gas4you]

They are a piece of cake to fit provided you like crawling about on a roof, I have always connected them to an unvented, don't know if you can connect to a vented system

Yes you can as the Solar side will be sealed its self.

I have completely come out of solar, as it was a complete waste of time for the comsumer if they thought they were going to save money.

They would get more return by investing the installation cost in a high interest account.

 

[Corgigrouch]

'Fraid I cant comment on how good they are since they have only recently fitted them and it's not ideal solar weather.. I do guess that they will take a while to pay for themselves, if ever but we are all taking a gamble on the price of gas remaining "Reasonable" My money would be on an air to water heat pump for the future, the Japanese have some really good stuff on test in Japan so will make it's way over here in the next few years. There are some heat pumps available now but have limited water temperature.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZIYwoHtrXN0 I'm afraid that it is all in Japanese but here is an animation of the Daikin Ecocute

 

[heatingman]

Prefer the Zenith system, easy fix panels and trac pipe, some customers do expect an immediate return on investment, all depends on roof location as to amount of free (if theres such a thing) water.
When they are working well the water is usually very wet and hot.

 

[Balenza]

This system takes solar to a new level.

http://www.jenni.ch/pdf/Object_description_Eurosun_2008t.pdf

 

[heatingman]

Just thinking about getting the cylinder down the scrap merchants, definitely need a bigger van.

 

[Kes]

This system takes solar to a new level.

Just do the calcs. 205000 ltrs is 205 tonnes, no? Lets hope the welds hold. The construction cost is 2m euros, and the solar heating is 10%, and there's 8 apartments. So 200000/8 = 25000 eu for each apartment. That's an investment of around £17,500 for (untested) free heating. I don't know whether I'd go for that. As the apartments are rented I can't see the developers giving the 'free' heating away. I am a little sceptical about the capacity in a Swiss winter.