Solar Hot Water Tubes best and most durable

mrjoneill

Looking back over all the solar hat water posts I think it needs updating as most post are almost 10yrs old. I’m planning to install Solar Hot Water Tubes to heat a recently installed 300lt cylinder. Cylinder has a bottom coil for solar connection and a south facing angled roof and house internal walls and attic are super insulated. Plan to install 30 tube solar installation.
I have two main issues I need advice on. I have looked at the SEAI, Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland website and it did not enlighten me. I do not understand the measurement tool to efficiency such as Loss Co-efficient (a1) and Zero-loss Collector Efficiency. There is no doubt the website could be made more “man-in-the-street” understandable which it’s aimed at. Just like supermarkets label products cost per Kilo or Litre gives a quick rule of thumb that the rating system needs such as area to conversion rate.

1 .What is the best solar tube in turning sunlight into heat?
2 .What is the most cost effective and durable one.
3 .Installer recommended Joules as better than Kingspan.
4 .Another installer recommends 20 Pleion evacuated tubes has a equivalence of 30 Kinspan.


I have got two quotes one for 30 tube Kingspan and the other 30 tube Firebird. The retailer advises there is only marginal improvement with the Kingspan.
Solar Kingspan HP400 full kit €2486
Solar Firebird full kit €1600
Almost €1k in difference in an installation that has a long payback time.

I understand there is an grant of a reg installation of €1200, anyone know of the correct vat rating the quotes I got are 23% rate but see on Revenue site a reduced rate for environmental friendly purchases. Quotes I got for purchase and installation by reg installers varied from €4k to well in excess of 5k.

dathi

mrjoneill wrote: »

ube
I have two main issues I need advice on. I have looked at the SEAI, Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland website and it did not enlighten me. I do not understand the measurement tool to efficiency such as Loss Co-efficient (a1) and Zero-loss Collector Efficiency.
I have got two quotes one for 30 tube Kingspan and the other 30 tube Firebird. The retailer advises there is only marginal improvement with the Kingspan.
.

(a1) is the heat that the collector looses back to the atmosphere as it heats up and should be as low as possible. and (n0) is how efficient the collector is at delivering the heat to the water and should be as large a number as possible. they are a bit like the miles per gallon figures for cars as in they are lab figures and are not replicated in real life situations. so for the two you asked about hp400 (A1) 1.18 (n0)0.75
and fire bird (a1)1.529 (n0)0.73
so the the hp400 has a 75 % effecient in lab and the firebird is 73%

mrjoneill

Tks that makes it more understandable.

roy rodgers

Over the years I've installed all the brand names and found there is very little between them.
But Over the past while I intend to install the kingspan as I can give a 20 warranty for the tubes and that is a big selling point for the customer..
Also kingspan are the only manufacturer of solar tubes in Europe while the rest is all coming from China..
They are good quality and have a solution for every kind of job. You can even place their tube flat against a wall or on a flat roof. I'm sure other makes can do this too.

Have solar in my own house for the past 10 years I find the it's great even on the dull days in winter you harvest some sort of energy still.

It's not for everyone I happy what it does for my home and I don't have to buy oil till October or November!!!!!

The cost of the kingspan doesn't sound right to me there they are slightly more expensive but wasn't buy that much

mrjoneill

After an exhaustive investigation and much misinformation on the way, the Kingspan HP400 is best not only in performance but it seems durability. The cheapest quote I got from a supplier was €2,500. I asked all the Cork based SEAI approved installers and so few got back to me. Most were selling their own systems and that was their deal one tried to persuade me that one of his systems a 20 tube installation was better than a 30 tube Kingspan. One only called to see the job and never heard back from him; don’t know why as it is lighted floored attic with plenty of headroom. What I can’t understand is there is a €1200 grant and surely it should be possible to get a €3,700 installation but cant.