solar tube temperatures

T

tick tock

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i have 40 tubes and yesterday my 300l tank was 58 C....i live in the west of ireland.i will post my temps from time to time if anybody cares just to let those who are still thinking about solar to go for it....
 
Yep - good idea - what is the orientation & who supplied/what make would also be useful info.
 
well i have my panels facing south as normal and my panels are 24 metres from my tank which is a long way but i imagine how much hotter the water would get if they were closer.i got them from ecologics and a smart local plumber installed them..
last night my little girl had a bath (swim)and this morning there was 2 showers very hot showers and all that from yesterdays sun.
i have the panels since may 08 but yesterday matched one of the good days last august...
 
Interesting stuff.

So since May 08 how many cylinders of useable hot water have you got from them?
 
hmmm well last 2 weeks of may first week of june were good all of july was good august maybe 2 weeks september october november december but the water was never below 15 C in those months...i remember a couple of days in december getting 34 C....i intend to track it it more this year now that i am settled into house which is highly insulated.22 c in house yesterday and kept it untill this morning .turned of boiler yesterday.
 
55 C at the moment in the tank and very sunny all day. the house was 23 C last night and 22 C this morning that would be passive solar energy i think.... the house is 3500 sq ft.
 
Hey Tick Tock

this is very interesting feedback!!
What kind of heating have you (Rads or UFH) and how do you heat them (Oil, gas, geo etc??)

Thanks
 
i have under floor heating every where . i use a condensing oil boiler which has being turned of since tuesday night.. actually the house has been warmer acheiving 23 C from passive solar since then. i have all stats in house set at 20 C while boiler ir running.im at work at the moment and my wife is fed up with me calling to check the tank temps...but ill call her again now....
 
i also have heat recovery ventilation....so no windows open letting out my heat but fresh air all the time.
 
Hey Tick Tock,

thanks for the update...currently building a similar size house myself and am installing UFH downstairs and Rads upstairs with oil condensing boiler..will have Solar tubes on south facing roof and am also installing HRV, so this all sounds positive to me....!!

Are you saying (and I know it has been exceptionally warm for last few days) that you have not had your UFH turned on since Tuesday..?? what about the evenings/night when it has been cooler?

thanks for the feedback!!
 
that is correct...no heating turned on since tuesday..last night at 10pm the house was 22 C this morning it was 20.5 C. also this morning i realised 2 rooms upstairs at back of house were 18 C but the doors to those rooms were closed.
i thought when i was getting the HRV that it would move heat around the house but i dont think it does giving that those rooms at the back (north facing) are indeed cooler.
i forgot to check tank temp this morning but as normal the shower was hot.
another sunny day here in the west and another day without the boiler on.
i am thinking of replacing my 300L tank with a buffer tank 650L instead and what this does is it will run the UFH from the solar tubes.now i know it will be very efficient during the summer when you dont need it but there are lots of sunny days through out the year to make it worth while doing it.
by the way i am not into pay back times.....
 
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[hi
my plumber was on a daily rate of €200. but he also did my woodwork.this guy is exceptional.so i really dont know what i payed him.he also supplied at cost all the UFH stuff from the uk..oh i remember it was 2800E for all the stuff needed for UFH.very cheap.
i have all my electrics telephone tank wiring satelite all in a shed at back of house .this makes adding new things very easy.so i can do the buffer tank.
 
62 C yesterday.....i had hot water courtesy of the sun for 3 days this week.. this is the hottest ever. it just shows how wet and dark last summer was..
yesterday was very sunny the other days not so but enough for 40 to 48 C....
 
Hi, i am in mayo, wonder if you could PM me the contact/address for your plumber, i'm thinking of installing the Connaught Gold SOlar water heating system
Regards
jashar99
 
Solar temperatures

Great to hear peoples experiences with solar panels, I have a great interest in all things to do with green energy, I imported two complete solar panel systems from China[ most of the solar panels around are made in the far east] 1 with 300 litre twin coil cylinder for my own use and 1 with a 500 litre twin coil cylinder for a larger house with underfloor heating, both came with pump stations and system controllers, after reading the temperatures from tick tock I went and checked mine at just before 8 pm this evening the temp at solar panel was still at 46 degrees and 42 in the middle of the cylinder, I would just like to say a word of warning its very important to make sure the cylinder is correctly sized for the amount panels and of good quality, it might also be good practise to have a heat dump to releave excess heat to in the event we get a prolonged hot summer, I have a radiator on mine,I am also at the moment working on simple heat exchanger system that can be inserted into an existing cylinder in the place of the emersion heater it will also be run completly from the solar energy using a PV panel, 12 volt controller and a 12 volt pump, I have all the parts sourced apart from the PV panel I will be testing soon and will post again with some results if anyone is interested.
PS i also have wind turbine if anyone wants to chat.
[email protected]
MLM1
 
for the last week i have set my boiler to come on at 7:30am to 8am and i have only one zone in the hallway calling for heat at 20 C ..
the solar panels are keeping the water hot during the day...saving loads of oil.
temps in tank varying between 32 C to 51 C for the past week.
 
Hi Tick Tock. Unfortunately, I have had a horror story compared with you. 2 years ago my plumber installed 30 evacuated tubes on my south facing garage (brand of tubes are the German make "Viesmann" Actual name of tubes are "Vitisol 200"). The plumber installed a 300 litre highly insulated Stainless steel cylinder which has a large surface area solar coil. Like yourself the distance between the cylinder and the panels is about 20 metres but I have not been getting anything like the temps you have got for example the best panel reading I got last Saturday on the controller (Vitisolic 100 is the name of controller) when it was bright and sunny all day was 42 degrees which corresponded to a max of 32-34 degrees in the cylinder. Have you opr anyone else any thoughts? There is no issue with air being in the system and there is definitely enough glycol. Maybe you could PM me your plumbers name??
 
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