Solar panels

[chadfieldpropertyservices]

I like the idea of solar panels but with the cost of purchase, installation and repairs when the pumps and controls fail, their financail advantage is marginal.
We have the facility to place the solar panels below a thermal store and use the thermal store to pre heat the water entering the existing hot water tank. Thermal syphon could then be used to circulate the water through the panels and the thermal store, doing away with power consuming, expensive, unreliable pumps and controls - in theory!!!!
Has anyone had experience of such asystem? would it work, assuming the panels and pipework are suitably designed without airlocks for a thermal syphon to work?.

 

[Agile]

Simond, You sound like the typical head up own rse gas fitter!

No, a weather compensated boiler won't do what I want it to do and the recovery systems you mention are typically used with non condensing combis. The rads in the systen were sized to give required heat output even on the coldest days with a supply temp of 50'c

When you speak to one of the resident heating experts on this forum like that, I hope that no one is going to give you any free advice.

You clearly think that after illegally installing many gas boilers that you know everything there is to know about boilers!

Tony

 

[kevindgas]

well said!
it amazes me how many come on here for advice then slag off those that try to help them.
i know the answers but i won't bother as it probably won't be what he wants to hear!!

 

[chadfieldpropertyservices]

Ah the same old crew are still around I see, how come you're on here so much and not out working?, can't get the chip on your shoulder through the door?. After simond's reply to my original post, are you really that surprised that I took offence?.
In the end I reluctantly had another Ravenheat boiler fitted by a Gas Safe engineer, but the system boiler that should have been fitted in the first place rather than the adapted combi. The rationale being that the only other boilers available that would run the system had a reputation even worse than Ravenheat, the new Ravenheat had a 5yr guarantee and as the new boiler shared many identical parts with the old one, the old one could be caniballised if needs be.

 

[Happyplumber]

I have done countless solar installs ,but i have to agree with my fellow gasmen,why should we help rude and arrogant people.

Its our perogative wether we wish to advise the general public,all these years of building up knowledge learning the craft and then getting gip from some poxy diyer instead of thank you ,makes you wonder wether one should bother or not

 

[transam]

What type of ravenheat did you have ? if you look in my profile there are some pics of a ravenheat heat exc !!!

 

[chadfieldpropertyservices]

It was a csi combi, but even after 5 years there was no significant corrosion, the one in your pics is well shot!

Why should "I" thank rude and arrogant people?

 

[lawrance]

It was a csi combi, but even after 5 years there was no significant corrosion, the one in your pics is well shot!

Why should "I" thank rude and arrogant people?

the 5 year warranty on that piece of junk aint worth a w$nk

 

[transam]

It was a csi combi, but even after 5 years there was no significant corrosion, the one in your pics is well shot!

How do you know ?? If it did not

Probably because it was not in the condensing mode very often , this one is not an isolated incident recently took one out were the flue had rotted away , incidentally although the 2nd heat exc are bolted together thay can not be taken apart to be cleaned , Raven heat in there wisdom put a condensate blockage detector on the condensate trap , but they generally block between the outlet of the heat exc & trap inlet with dissolved ally , with all the resultant prob's !! some of the csi boilers were so poorley designed that the only way you can actually get the condensate pipe off the back of the boiler & back on again is by taking the boiler off the wall !!

 

[chadfieldpropertyservices]

The boiler actually works in condensing mode far more than the average condensing boiler, it runs UFH directly and oversized radiators at low output temperature so the return to the boiler is about 40'c max, the system was designed this way to take maximum benefit from the condensing boiler. I can't remember which manufacturer it was but their stated efficiency figures gave something like 85% for supply/return temps of 80/60'c, 90% for 60/40'c and 93% for 40/30'c confirming that best efficiency is acheived by running them cool.
This was where my problem arose in the fact that running at low output temp meant that heating the HW tank would take ages if at all and Ravenheat were the only manufacturer I could find that had separate controls for heating and hot water mode on a system boiler. I did look into weather compensated boilers but the control systems did not work well with the multi zone system I have and I want the system to run at low temp regardless of the weather.
Perhaps the boiler in your photo's has not been condensing such that the acidic residues are drying out and getting concentrated on the heat exchanger, whereas in my boiler, the constant stream of condensate has prevented the buildup of strongly acidic residue.

 

[chadfieldpropertyservices]

PS I know it was not badly corroded as it has now been replaced ( long story but I was supplied with a combi instead of a system boiler which sat in the shed for 6months befor realising so could not be returned, it was installed to run as a system boiler and I added a relay to the thermostat to get it to function as required but understandably, no engineer wanted anything to do with an altered boiler when it came to repairs and servicing).
So the old combi has been stripped down for spares. and a system boiler fitted

 

[transam]

The heat exc in the photo came off of a boiler that was heating a swimming pool , there were 2 of them , they were never out of the condensing mode , both boiler's suffered the same prob's , I think they were about 18 month;s old , the other heat exc was donated to a training centre , 2 other boiler's on a large property have suffered similar problem's , the property they serve is in most case's empty but the boiler's are on 24/7 they were 4 years old both boiler's are now non condensing boiler's heat exc are disconected , I also have had prob's with 2 further heat exc , plus a flue that has corroded away that boiler would be 6 year's old I beleive raven's have gone over to plastic now ! put enogh condensate down them they will dissolve away !!