Solar Panel pump - pressure down to 0

chenl

HI guys,
Just use our Joule solar panel heating system with the cylinder about one year in our new house. We just found the hot water is lukewarm these days. After troubleshooting by myself, i narrow to the issue the solar panel system (three colors meter .. two for temp which is 40 degree, one for pressure is total 0 bar).
Then I popup to Joule in Dublin and ask one of tech staff. He said it could be a leak somewhere (roof ?) to make pressure down to 0 or just need to topup the pressure simply. Unfortunately , the Joule didnt offer any repairing service for solar panel system.

I probably need to go back to chase with builder (you know how hard...) to send a plumber to check / just ask the opinions around here whether its the right direction we focus on? Central heating is fine for us.
Cheers

djivide_

is it only recently that you noticed the water being lukewarm? could boiler / immersion have been
keeping the water warm since the summer?

I know the only time i have hit 0 pressure in the solar system was in the summer when my system
overheated and blew the pressure release valve, hot water tank had gotten to max temp I had set(65)
and the system quickly went over 200 degrees celsius and the pressure release valve did its job.

Either way you are going to need to get more fluid (glycol) to fill the system and there is a pumping
unit designed for installing / refilling the system which you normally let run through the system for
30 minutes to remove air from the system before bringing it up to normal pressure which is about 4 bar
if i remember correctly. Any plumber that installs / fixes solar systems should be able to get this unit.

chenl

djivide_ wrote: »

is it only recently that you noticed the water being lukewarm? could boiler / immersion have been
keeping the water warm since the summer?

I know the only time i have hit 0 pressure in the solar system was in the summer when my system
overheated and blew the pressure release valve, hot water tank had gotten to max temp I had set(65)
and the system quickly went over 200 degrees celsius and the pressure release valve did its job.

Either way you are going to need to get more fluid (glycol) to fill the system and there is a pumping
unit designed for installing / refilling the system which you normally let run through the system for
30 minutes to remove air from the system before bringing it up to normal pressure which is about 4 bar
if i remember correctly. Any plumber that installs / fixes solar systems should be able to get this unit.

thanks for the reply, the lukewarm water only starts a week ago .. it was working fine since last year (winter) .. just wonder could be leak somewhere as Joule staff said ?

djivide_

More than likely, pressure doesn't drop to 0 for no reason.

chenl

Got a quote back from a plumber to do the job, will be roughly 400 in Dublin. Is that fair offer ?