Solar panels combined with oil burner...

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bragan

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I have recently moved into a new house and we are still trying to figure out all our heat/hot water settings.

We have solar panels to heat the water and an oil burner which will heat the house and the water. There is a thermostat on the hot water cylinder which is set to 50c.

My question is how do you know what the temperature of the water in the cylinder is now.....by this I mean how do you know if the solar panels have heated the water to an adequate temperature? And also, if we put our oil burner on the heat the water will it continue to heat the water if the solar panels have already done the job?? So am I wasting oil if I have my oil burner on, but the water is already hot?
 
does your solar panels have a control panel may be in the hot press near your cylinder, on mine i can scroll thru the functions and see the temp at the panles on the roof and also the temp of the water in the tank.

if i turn on my oil i presume it heats the rads first and then it runs as required to bring the temp of the water up to the required temp and then shuts off as per the temp settings it is set at
 
clonboy said:
if i turn on my oil i presume it heats the rads first and then it runs as required to bring the temp of the water up to the required temp and then shuts off as per the temp settings it is set at
Click to expand...

It'll heat both at the same time unless you have had more advanced controls and motorised valves fitted, which would be unusual.
 
Usually the oil only heats the top half of the cylinder, leaving about half the cylinder at the bottom for the solar to work on, especially in the winter, which (hopefully) is the only time you are using your oil heating in the morning.

If you want to use oil in the morning, and leave a full cylinder for the solar to heat during the day, you will need controls.

Most recent solar installations have a controller with a digital display. If not, you can retrofit one, but this is easier if the probes are the same type (PT1000 are the norm, but there are others). You can check the resistance on the probe coming into the controller (eh, disconnect everything first...) - if the resistance is in or around 1,000 ohms at 0 C, then it is probably a PT 1000. It is very handy with a well insulated cylinder to know the temperature top and bottom. Otherwise, you may suddenly find yourself in a cold shower with a mountain of suds to wash off... yech!
 
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