Smell from Solar hot water

k123456

I have heard people mention possible unpleasant Smell from Solar hot water

I am getting a solar system installed and worried this may be an issue, is there anything I should look out for to avoid this issue ?

daver123

k123456 wrote: »

I have heard people mention possible unpleasant Smell from Solar hot water

I am getting a solar system installed and worried this may be an issue, is there anything I should look out for to avoid this issue ?

i have solar ( kingspan thermomax system )and never had that problem, what system are u installing

shane0007

k123456 wrote: »

I have heard people mention possible unpleasant Smell from Solar hot water

I have installed probably in the region of 300 - 400 of them over the years & I have never heard that one before. The water circuit is indirect in nearly all of them so the smell cannot be from the solar circuit. If there is a weep on the solar circuit in the hot press, then there could well be a smell of glycol in the hot press which is not pleasant. This would only be in the hot press and not affect the water in your taps.

nmacc

Ah yes Shane, but if the coil in the DHW cylinder fails, then you will get leakage of Glycol in to the hot water cylinder and all of the hot water in the house will smell nice & fruity.

I had this happen many years ago with a well-known & very reputable cylinder manufacturer. Fortunately I knew better than to ever use ethylene glycol. Only happened once in hundreds of installations. Co-incidentally I never used that well-known & reputable manufacturer again.

shane0007

nmacc wrote: »

Ah yes Shane, but if the coil in the DHW cylinder fails, then you will get leakage of Glycol in to the hot water cylinder and all of the hot water in the house will smell nice & fruity.

I had this happen many years ago with a well-known & very reputable cylinder manufacturer. Fortunately I knew better than to ever use ethylene glycol. Only happened once in hundreds of installations. Co-incidentally I never used that well-known & reputable manufacturer again.

The pressure drop in the solar circuit would be an instant indication of that failure. The solar would also be oxygenated so would therefore not function fairly rapidly as the CP would recognise this through incorrect pump function & identify it as one of 3 possible faults.

nmacc

Indeed you're right, the pressure would drop off, but that wasn't in question. The OP was asking about a smell off the water & I was just pointing out that it is indeed possible, but very rare, and only when the system is totally screwed of course.

What's a CP by the way?

shane0007

Control Panel.

The OP also worded "I have heard people" suggesting the plural and as if it were a common issue with solar systems. Before it would be noticeable in the hot water supply, it would become very much diluted. Most solar systems have less than 20litres of mixture and only 40% of this is glycol. The rest if factory mixed distilled H2O. So <8 litres in an average 300 litre cylinder & that would be if the whole solar circuit emptied into the cylinder.

nmacc

Yes Shane it would be diluted, but t'would still pong sumfink 'orrible!

Like I say, I've been there, but not willingly. It will also slightly tint the DHW according to the colour of the glycol. Other than that one occasion it happened to me, I haven't heard tell of it happening elsewhere. I wouldn't read too much into the "I've heard people..." line.

Do people still pick up these storys from bar stool experts, or has that old source of misinformation died away? To be replaced by the Internet I presume!