plumbing

danmat2332

Hi, could someone please give me some advice on solar heating & plumbing, we have just purchased an old enery expensive house and will be replacing the roof shortly, it is heated by an old energy guzzling boiler which we also want to replace and the water tank is probably from the 50's. I would like some info on solar paneling, solar cpable water tanks, so heres the questions...

3 bed house, probably 4 showers per day, what size water tank do I look for?
Direct or indirect?
Will all solar capable tanks work with all solar panels?
Can I put the tank in the attic to save livable living space (small house)?
Can you recommend a make of tank, Heatrae?
Can solar work the central heating or underfloor heating also?

I am an ebay fanatic so it may be cheaper to pick bits up as they come along....

Thanks for your help,

Dan.

Joey the lips

There is a chap that pops up here regularly his user name is "heinblood" he seems to have a good insight on solar. After that i would get 3 quotes.


For what its worth i would go with tubeler over flat panel and despite the stats solar will not meet all your demand all the time so you will need a back up.

danmat2332

thx for the info Joey

AckwelFoley

We have a renewable energies forum here http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=1041 - perhaps a mod can move this thread there or you can pose your questions there.

Its down to investment, if you want to use solar for space heating its a bigger investment and more panels and a more complex system, which personally wouldnt use.

In my opinion, use the solar for your hot water, into an indirect stainless steel cylinder, im getting rusty, but if i remember its 50l per person so perhaps a 300l cylinder, dual coil so you can use a secondaryheating source.

Tubes or panels? Tubes tend to be more efficent, but this is strictly dependant on the quality of tubes, some have a higher rating than others.

Id buy the complete system from one reputable source, if you have problems then you can tackle the one person rather than chasing 4 different suppliers trying to identify the problem. Solar works well and with a good system you wont have many problems if fitted correctly

Tap That Flange

Hi there does anyone know of gas boiler servicing courses around dublin, i know cheveron do it but there quite expensive. also wondering if being on the social welfare is there any grants. thanks guys

heinbloed

@ the OP:

I didn't come across your post 'till today, sorry.

Have you solved your problems/questions?

Tap That Flange

no not yet just wonder does anyone know of anywhere that does this course

heinbloed

Check the "plumbing and heating" forum for previous threads, open a new one if necessarry.

jj58

i would go for a 300l cylinder, with a kingspan tube, comes with 20 year warrenty, most other tubes only have 5 year warrenty, mainly cause tests have shown they lose their vacuum after a few years, other wise a good flat panel causethe always perform the same overtime,
i would nt go for a bigger cylinder because in winter time your oil or solid fuel has more hot water to heat costing you money, no one thinks of that,
stainless steel cylinder will last longer than copper unless you have a bored water well, there is something in the water that will decay the stainless steel cylinders over time.
if you put cylinder in attic you might not have head room , as the cylinder is very high and may need to presurize the system witha noisey pump. that only my opinion

aujopimur

I'd say he has it sorted by now.

billyknowsbest

Hi all,
Anybody help me out here? Living in a block of flats in London. Central heating is on but rads not so warm...I forgot to bleed them this year! The property management company turns on the central heating system for all the flats…
Could I still bleed the rads, just by switching them off in our place or would that be risky? Hoe this is clear! Thanks!

delly

Hi billy, best you start a new thread please.