# Kingspan or thermodynamic panels for hot water?



## StaroftheSea (21 Oct 2014)

Hi All,
Our BER assessor has put us down for Kingspan Thermomax solar tube panels for our new build.  They are reportedly the best of their kind on the market and  can produce up to 55% of our hot water needs spread over the whole year.  Apparently they need servicing about every 2 years at a cost of about €300. 
They have a negligible running cost of about €120 Euro per year I'm told.

Cost of installation about €5000
All sounds good enough.

But then there is this other type of panel....

It works like a fridge in reverse and is called a thermodynamic panel.
It's basically like a heat pump.  
It costs about €5000 to install.
No service costs.
Warrenty for 10 years.
Running costs I'm told are about 60c to heat a 300 litre tank. 
It will produce 100% of our domestic hot water requirements all year round.

My question is why would anyone go for the Kingspan solar tubes at all? 
Is there something I'm missing or is the thermodynamic panel as good as it appears?

Many thanks.


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## flowerman (21 Oct 2014)

StaroftheSea said:


> Hi All,
> Our BER assessor has put us down for Kingspan Thermomax solar tube panels for our new build. They are reportedly the best of their kind on the market and can produce up to 55% of our hot water needs spread over the whole year. Apparently they need servicing about every 2 years at a cost of about €300.
> They have a negligible running cost of about €120 Euro per year I'm told.
> 
> ...


 

Our architect specified thermodynamic solar panels from LVP for our build.

http://www.lvprenewables.ie/

I was there on site on the day that the system was installed.
The panel is black and very light,its only 8 kilos in weight.The solar panel is very slimline and thin and blends in rather well with our roof.It isnt as noticable as a typical bigger/heavier solar tube setup.
The plumber from LVP then installed a 300 litre white insulated tank and did all the plumbing work.This gives us all our hot water needs and the water is at a constant 55 degrees C which is more than hot enough.
The compressor is very quiet.....( no louder than a fridge) and it comes on for about 20 minutes at night,each night.Theres an LCD display panel on the tank/compressor and theres an "anti legionnaires' disease" button to we press once a month to zap any nasties that may be in the water.
My wife and myself are so far very happy with the system and the hot water it produces and our electricity bills have been rather low aswell so thats a bonus.




PS--Both Kingspan and LVP Renewables will be at the Ideal Home Show this weekend comming,if you want to chat to both companies in person and compare them to each other.Hope this helps you out.

http://www.idealhome.ie/

[broken link removed]


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## Branz (21 Oct 2014)

Any tech spec on the thermo  panels?

Looking at what data is provided, 300l water from 10 to 55 degrees C is about 16kW of energy required.
60c at 15c per kWw implied 4 kWs of energy in so the COP, Coefficient of Performance is 4 which I suppose is not too outlandish a claim.

I don't like the X% of your hot water needs, especially when caveatted with "spread over the whole year"

You need a performance chart based on expected temp and solar profile
As for the nasties
http://portfolio.cpl.co.uk/CIBSE/201410/special-legionellosis-prevention-rehva-guidebook/
shows how critical the top temp


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## StaroftheSea (22 Oct 2014)

Thanks for your replies,

It's good to hear from someone who's not selling and has experience of the thermodynamic panel.

I still don't know if there is a reason why one might go for the kingspan panels if given the choice between the two types??

I was talking to a man (got his number - don't know him) who had kingspan panels in for two years, changed to the thermodynamic panels and says he's never looked back since.  He said the kingspan tubular solar panels need the sun to work and never produced enough hot water for his family, whereas the thermodynamic panels have provided all the hot water he needs......

I also rang kingspan to ask them the above question.  The person I was talking to said they had never heard of the thermodynamic panel and said he would have to look into it and get back to me.  I would have imagined that anyone working for kingspan would have their homework done on the competition...


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## Branz (22 Oct 2014)

Flowerman: Is the compressor not running nearly call the time or else ur HW usage is v low??
Tks


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## flowerman (22 Oct 2014)

Well we use the hot water for showering and in the bathroom basins for washing our hands.We also use a small amount when washing the dishes,if I decide not to stick on the dishwasher.

We take short showers as we dont believe is wasting water or taking ages in the shower.Just enough time to get in,get clean and get back out.
Our daughter takes a bit more time than us to shower but even she doesnt take ages to shower,so we are easy enough on the hot water.
We have a large underground rainwater harvesting system aswell so this will be a benefit to us all in the future years to come,come big water bill time when IW is given free will to ramp up the prices.


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