solar power water and central heating

paddyc

folks how are you all


I have been toying with the idea about kitting the house out with a system that will allow me to heat the water and the central heating in the house witha system like this one below... now my question is it costs about e7500 all in all for the parts... never mind the installation... now i know there will be a grant for it... but my Q is would you be better sourcing all the parts and once everthing is complete getting a registered lad in to fit it all....


does that seem like a good idea? and also do you think a systme like the one below would heat the water and ALSO the central heating?

thanks paddy

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Calpak solar vacuum collector central heating kit (FS tank) 8.6m2/500 l


This high efficiency vacuum collector kit contains almost everything needed for a system where solar energy is to be used for both hot water and central heating. It can be easily integrated with conventional central heating boilers, solid fuel or electricity.
Contents of Kit:


4 x 12VTN Solar Collectors (8.6m2)
1 x 500 litre TiSUN FS Combination tank including insulation
1 x FlowCon S Solar Station
50 litres of pre-mixed Tyfocor LS Antifreeze
1 x 40 litre Expansion vessel
1 x Expansion vessel connector
1 x Domestic hot water mixing/blending valve
Benefits:
Reduced installation cost due to kit pre-assembly.
Matched components give better efficiency and performance.
5 year warranty for solar collectors and water heating tank.
The Calpak 12VTN Solar Collector is included in the Greener Homes Scheme Registered Products List. This kit is therefore grant eligible.

The SEI Product ID of the 12VTN collector is SEI-ST-114.

Mounting brackets and pipe systems available as accessories(see below).

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CJhaughey

The problem with solar is that in times where you most need heating the sun is lowest and the system is working inefficiently.
Solar works well for DHW but for central heating unless you have a passive house-forget it.

CJhaughey

CJhaughey wrote: »

The problem with solar is that in times where you most need heating the sun is lowest and the system is working inefficiently.
Solar works well for DHW but for central heating unless you have a passive house-forget it.

Another problem would be the fact that we get several days of heavy overcast weather producing virtually no solar energy during the winter.
The real challange is to be able to store solar collected heat for several days at a time.

I have seen an idea (must find link) that uses a number of smallish (50 - 100 litre) cylinders in an extremely insulated enclosure, all on a coil of pipes connected to the solar panels and with a coil of pipes over them transferring to the domestic system. These are connected in such a way that one cylinder at a time is charged with heat then discharged.

Duzzie

I used to live in Cyprus and these solar heating systems were installed on virtually every house. They were very effective in the summer but not so during the winter. In the winter we still has to use central heating and emersion heaters.

Given that the amount of sunshine in Ireland is a lot less than Cyprus, i'm not sure how effective it would be here. I am sure that the systems here would have to me a lot more technically advanced than the ones used in the med but i would be dubious how effective they would be, considering you are talking about a 7 1/2 grand outlay.

Just something to think about if you haven't already.

Duzzie