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Solar Hot Water from Southern Star Solar
Save up to 80% on your hot water costs
The addition of a Solar Water Heating System to your house, especially in a sunny climate, is probably the most obvious step you can take to reduce your energy bills as well as your carbon footprint.
A number of different solar hot water systems exist, but the one thing they all have in common is a solar collecting panel.
In many systems the solar collecting panel consists of a flat plate with a glazed surface with pumped or gravity fed water (or antifreeze solution) running through tubes behind it. The tubes are fastened to a black absorber plate and the water in the tubes is heated directly from the sun's energy falling on the panel.
Where the installation permits, we prefer to use solar collectors based on evacuated vacuum tubes. These are more efficient than flat panel systems and so the overall panel size can be smaller.
Our collecting panels typically have either 22 or 30, 1500mm long, 55mm diameter vacuum tubes arranged side by side. Each tube is constructed much like a household glass vacuum flask, with a vacuum between inner and outer glass tubes and a space inside the inner tube. The inside of the inner tube is coated black to absorb the sun's heat and thus the internal space gets hot and essentially stays hot because of the surrounding vacuum.
Inside each vacuum tube is a heatpipe that runs the length of the tube. This consists of a hollow copper tube which itself is evacuated of air but contains a small amount of liquid, mostly water. At the top of each pipe is a larger bulb known as a condenser. The condenser part of each heatpipe is enclosed in a single copper manifold through which water is pumped.
As the sun heats the inside of the vacuum tube, the copper heatpipe gets hot and the liquid within it evaporates (boils). Because the heatpipe is at a low air pressure, the liquid will boil at a relatively low temperature. The vapour rises to the top of the tube into the condenser, which is cooler because of the cooler water flowing through the manifold. The vapour will thus condense and in doing so will transfer heat to the manifold and the flowing water. The condensed liquid returns to the bottom of the heatpipe and the process is repeated.
The water that flows through the copper manifold leaves at a higher temperature than it enters. The heated water passes through a heat exchanger inside a hot water storage tank and transfers its heat to the water in the tank. The water in the tank is the domestic hot water. We have a range of different storage tanks and can supply and install the most appropriate for your requirement. A 30 tube panel will normally be supplied with a 315 Litre tank while a 22 tube panel will normally be supplied with a 250 Litre tank.
Contact us today for full advice about solar hot water systems and let us help you to identify the best system for your needs.
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