Solar Water Heaters

damiand

Hi Folks,

Has any one go information on solar water heating or photovoltaic (PV) panels ?

I am intersted on installing either tubes or pannels on the roof of my south facing house. I have gotten three quotes (which were substantially different)on both systems by there seems to be little or no good indeprndent advice on which system is best and the most economical.

Has any one got these systems on their houses and if so are they working at the moment ?

I know there have been threads about this subject in the past. apolgise in advance if my question is therefore repetative.

Boggle

Solar Water Heaters:
Do not have any realtime information on these at the minute. All I have seen is the report on sei.ie which which indicates a yearly saving of stg17. Trouble with this report is that it is not very good and the technology used is more than likely outdated.
Perhaps one of the lads on here doing solar water heaters will have performance figures that could help.

Solar Electric;
If you can bear with me a short while, I am doing a performance report, under Irish conditions for our solar PV panels so I will have realtime data available soon that may shed some light (bu-dum!!) on their performance (in Tipperary at least).
As for pricing, I know my company charges E5/watt for Monochrystalline solar electric but I recommend anyone to shop around to find their best prices as it is always possible that there is a cheaper source out there.

I am aware that the data may not be considered independent by some but I will personally stand over the results as I have no interest in selling my soul... Not yet at any rate!!:p (Basically all I am doing is attaching a datalogger and graphing the results for the website)

Best of Luck.

CJhaughey

We have a 6.3m flatpanel type installed.
Cost 6600 fully installed including a 400 litre cylinder.
last ESB bill was 52 euro, I expect the next one to be slightly higher but at present even with the dull grey light the tank is still around 35 deg c
I really need to get the immersion going as it hasn't been connected since we moved in March.

paulmallon

this seem the right thread to ask :
Has anyone checked out which is more efficent,solar water heating or pv cells? i,ve been informed that water heating is a lot more efficent,and it takes a lot of area on the roof to produce say 1 kwatt for pv.
But some of the other threads here say that pv works better for our climate ie. diffuse sunlight?

rf

Hi folks
can anyone out there recomend a company that installs solar water heating systems

Musha

"Hi folks
can anyone out there recomend a company that installs solar water heating systems"

Hi rf,

Can recommend my own company:D check out the web site www.genconenergy.com

Musha

kerrymaninld

Grant Engineering in Birr, Co. Offally are rebranding/reselling Schuco solar water panels. Schuco is a large German company with an excellent reputation. Grant don't sell direct, so you simply order through DIY/hardware stores (e.g. any Topline Hardware outline). A 3 panel (~6 m sq) kit including solar tank, pumping station and all fittings will cost 3100 euro.

Fitting costs vary greatly. Grant run free training courses in their offices in Birr - so you could attend this and see whether or not its something you could take on yourself.

Good luck.

kerrymaninld

paulmallon wrote:

this seem the right thread to ask :
Has anyone checked out which is more efficent,solar water heating or pv cells? i,ve been informed that water heating is a lot more efficent,and it takes a lot of area on the roof to produce say 1 kwatt for pv.
But some of the other threads here say that pv works better for our climate ie. diffuse sunlight?

Both systems work well in Ireland - there isnt a huge difference between them. You'll need up to 10 panels to produce a Kw with PV which will cost you an awful lot of money. Most people start small with PV (one or two panels) and build it up from there. This is a sensible approach as the investment is very significant.

Musha

The key to a sucessful solar hot water system is the correct sizing, you should allow at least 50lts of hot water per day per person in the house. i.e. 2 adults 3 kids 250 ltr cyclinder, and then size your panels from there. (evacutated tubes are more efficient) less m2 on the roof for same hot water. if you oversize then you will have to vent hot water thus wasting energy and water. bigger is not all ways better. other things to take into consideration when installing a system.. do you have the room for an additional hot water cyclinder or is the one supplied dual coil? can the cyclinder be made to fit your hotpress? do you receive all the bits with your system or do you have to purchase piping either copper or flexible stainless steel which is very expensive. Installation is a two man two day job, the reason installation can be expensive is the public liability insurance for roof work. make sure your installer has insurance if he falls of your roof it will be alot more expensive for you.

kvw

rf wrote:

Hi folks
can anyone out there recomend a company that installs solar water heating systems

http://www.solarenergyconcepts.ie:80/index.html

kvw

rf wrote:

Hi folks
can anyone out there recomend a company that installs solar water heating systems

http://www.radonireland.com/

prospect

Hi all,

Sorry for resurecting an older thread.

I am very interested in installing solar panels to our home.
We have a large south east facing roof area which i believe would be ideal for installing panels. Also we have a large hotpress, directly below this roof area.

I was wondering:
I have UFH downstairs and Rads upstairs. I like to keep the rads on a low setting, and the UFH is almost always on. (on 2 hours off 2 hours, etc.) Can the solar panels be set to heat the water up to 35oC (ish) and the oild burner then set to continue the heating up to 600C (which is what it is currently set to. Or, would it be best to run the UFH 24/7 just using the panels, and then use the oil burner for the rads & tap water?