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Tubular or flat solar panels

  • 04-10-2009 1:21pm
    #1
    mendel
    Closed Accounts Posts: 100 ✭✭


    HI all,
    Looking for opinions on solar panels. It was claimed to me that tubular solar panels produce 30% more hot water than flat panels? does anyone know if this is in fact correct.

    Also, is 3 panels reasonable for a 2500 sq ft hse, will have 3 bathrooms and a family of 5?


Comments

  • #2
    CJhaughey
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,907 ✭✭✭✭CJhaughey


    mendel wrote: »
    HI all,
    Looking for opinions on solar panels. It was claimed to me that tubular solar panels produce 30% more hot water than flat panels? does anyone know if this is in fact correct.

    Also, is 3 panels reasonable for a 2500 sq ft hse, will have 3 bathrooms and a family of 5?

    What spec tubes vs what spec panels? Impossible to give any sort of answer without knowing the details.


  • #3
    mendel
    Closed Accounts Posts: 100 ✭✭mendel


    Ok i'll investigate further i didn't realise there was a difference


  • #4
    quentingargan
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,627 ✭✭✭quentingargan


    My experience as a generality is that metre for metre flatplates provide more hot water overall, but with a shorter season.

    On a hot sunny day, flatplates will provide more hot water, on a cloudy day, the tubes will produce more. But on a hot sunny day, either system will give you what you need.

    So for a well insulated house with the heating off for most of the year, you would do better with tubes. The downside to tubes is their aesthetics (some folks hate them) and the fact that they will lose their vacuum after about 20 years so the tubes will need to be replaced.

    And here you need to distinguish between "tubes" and "flasks". Tubes have one layer of glass with the heat pipe etc., welded to the glass. Replacement of these tubes is quite expensive. Flasks are a double layer of glass like a vacuum flask - they simply slide over the heat pipe and can be bought for about a fiver each, so replacment isn't a huge cost.


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