Solar panels and showers

alfman

We're currently building an extension and are thinking about getting solar evacuated tubes installed to heat the water. The sales man from the local company who supplies and fits the tubes reckons we should get rid of our electric shower and fit a shower that uses the water the evacuated tubes will heat. The water will come from the hot water cylinder into the shower. I'm just wondering if anyone else has the same system set up. How do you find it? If there is not enough hot water in the cylinder do you need to turn on the immersion or the heating to heat enough hot water to take a shower?

trad

At a course I was on recently on renewable energies the electric shower topic came up. A suggestion that was made was to leave the electric shower in place and feed the hot water to the electric shower from the solar system via an anti scald valve.

The net result is that you turn your shower to the minimum if the incoming water is hot enough and use no energy heating the water. In winter when the water mightn't be sufficiently hot enough for a comfortable shower you introduce the electric heat in the shower and only use the energy required to heat the water from tank temperature to shower temperature. Theory is good, haven't seen it sone in practice.

RedXIV

trad wrote: »

At a course I was on recently on renewable energies the electric shower topic came up. A suggestion that was made was to leave the electric shower in place and feed the hot water to the electric shower from the solar system via an anti scald valve.

The net result is that you turn your shower to the minimum if the incoming water is hot enough and use no energy heating the water. In winter when the water mightn't be sufficiently hot enough for a comfortable shower you introduce the electric heat in the shower and only use the energy required to heat the water from tank temperature to shower temperature. Theory is good, haven't seen it sone in practice.

In my parents house, this is pretty much the set up and my dad is chuffed with the money he is saving now. Whenever i go back, i've never had a cold shower and I come from a family where we like a good 10 mins in there

I'd recommend it and i'll be doing it when I get my own place

trad

Glad to hear it works.

tomcollins97

We recently installed a power shower to run off the immersion take - this is heated by the central heating or by electricity. Great in the winter as the heat is on anyway - no so good in the summer

The builder had a novel suggestion - "why get rid of the electric showere when you can out the power shower beside it?" which is what we did. We now have power showers when the water has been heated, and if it ever runs cold we have the electric as back-up. It also means that if you wan;t a shower on the spur of the moment you don't have to wait half an hour to heat the tank.

It has worked out great! Looks a bit odd, but it is the bathroom so no one sees it!

alfman

I like trad's idea but if you wanted a cold shower using that method, what would you do?

trad

Who wants a cold shower? My bathroom is like a sauna after the females use it. I do take your point but can't remember the last cold shower I had by choice.

ThePiedPiper

trad wrote: »

Who wants a cold shower? My bathroom is like a sauna after the females use it. I do take your point but can't remember the last cold shower I had by choice.

If you're into running, football or any sport for that matter, there's nothing better than cold showers.. I'd have them by choice most mornings after running..
Who wants to have a boiling hot shower that you can't cool down after spending couple of hours slogging it out in the garden in the heat of summer?!

trad

Ok, compromise, fit a wet room and have 2 showers, the hot solar /electric and a second mains fed cold only shower as in swimming pools / gyms etc.
Sorted.

ThePiedPiper

trad wrote: »

Ok, compromise, fit a wet room and have 2 showers, the hot solar /electric and a second mains fed cold only shower as in swimming pools / gyms etc.
Sorted.

or what i did in main bathroom; a thermostatic shower that runs off the hot water cylinder and a standard electric, both in a 1200 x 900 shower enclosure, one on each wall... I honestly don't think we'll ever have to use the electric given we'll have plenty of hot water from solar in summer and plenty from heating in winter.. But for extra 230 euro, we've the security of hot water from electric shower just in case someone uses 300 litres for a bath and someone else wants a shower.. sorted..

ferngreen

alfman wrote: »

We're currently building an extension and are thinking about getting solar evacuated tubes installed to heat the water. The sales man from the local company who supplies and fits the tubes reckons we should get rid of our electric shower and fit a shower that uses the water the evacuated tubes will heat. The water will come from the hot water cylinder into the shower. I'm just wondering if anyone else has the same system set up. How do you find it? If there is not enough hot water in the cylinder do you need to turn on the immersion or the heating to heat enough hot water to take a shower?

trad wrote: »

At a course I was on recently on renewable energies the electric shower topic came up. A suggestion that was made was to leave the electric shower in place and feed the hot water to the electric shower from the solar system via an anti scald valve.

The net result is that you turn your shower to the minimum if the incoming water is hot enough and use no energy heating the water. In winter when the water mightn't be sufficiently hot enough for a comfortable shower you introduce the electric heat in the shower and only use the energy required to heat the water from tank temperature to shower temperature. Theory is good, haven't seen it sone in practice.

There are no reall wrong answers to this as both will save you money pretty equally.

Needless to say electric showers are expensive so if you could rid yourself of them you would save a lot on your esb bills but you do lose the consistancy of the electric shower.

Corkey123

Interestin threads folks,

Just one ob. what if the water is too warm via the panels, how do you cool it if it is coming through the electric shower as suggested by trad, albeit the electric shower is set to cold?

I ask this question out of genuine interest as this solution does appeal to me personally, however I have a low comfort tolerance for hot water.

Joey the lips

MartinCorcoran wrote: »

Interestin threads folks,

Just one ob. what if the water is too warm via the panels, how do you cool it if it is coming through the electric shower as suggested by trad, albeit the electric shower is set to cold?

I ask this question out of genuine interest as this solution does appeal to me personally, however I have a low comfort tolerance for hot water.

The anti scald will prevent this and on a power shower there is a thermostatic control where it will mix cold with the hot.

Corkey123

Joey et al

We are talking about plumbing this through an electric shower (set to cold) not a power shower so the option of 'mixing' is not available as there is only one source in the electric shower, normally fed by the storage tank, but we are talking about feeding it from the hot tank - see Trad's suggestion above. But my question is if the water is too hot to shower how can it be cooled

Joey the lips

MartinCorcoran wrote: »

Joey et al

We are talking about plumbing this through an electric shower (set to cold) not a power shower so the option of 'mixing' is not available as there is only one source in the electric shower, normally fed by the storage tank, but we are talking about feeding it from the hot tank - see Trad's suggestion above. But my question is if the water is too hot to shower how can it be cooled

You are confusing me slightly

Electric Shower: Mains pressure -one cold feed water is heated by shower

Pumped electric shower - one tank cold feed water is heated by shower

If you plumb through an electric shower with one feed this will not regulate the temp becuase there is only one feed and it is hot from the panels.

Can you try explain again????

Power shower - Hot and cold feed. Hot from cylinder cold from tank

alfman

Does this mean trad's idea doesn't work ?

00jes

Installed panels last feb and as a result the electric shower in my en-suite is gathering dust and i havent even connected my immersion yet.
Very happy with the solar. would recomend it to anyone.
Last night my 300L cylinder was at 76 degrees top and bottom.
Pure class