THINKING OF INSTALLING SOLAR PANELS FOR HEATING AND HOT WATER

goat2

I wonder are there any on here who have recently bought these and fitted them, i believe that going down the route of grant assisted can be much dearer than just buying the kit and doing it diy, but with advice from a friend who know how to fit the thing, anyone who has them seem to have good to say about them

tphase

Check out the solar co-op
http://www.solarco-op.net/sitemap.htm
If you can, go to one of their workshops - went to one in Galway yesterday which was excellent. Loads of practical, bullsh!t-free information.
Commercial operators will fleece you, DIY is the only way to go, maybe hire a plumber for a day if you're not feeling up to doing pipework yourself

Forget integrating into the heating system, it's too expensive and you will get very little return. Most solar gain is in the summer when you don't need space heating but you can get the benefit of (nearly) free hot water and keep your immersion/power shower switched off.

paddyandy

goat2 wrote: »

I wonder are there any on here who have recently bought these and fitted them, i believe that going down the route of grant assisted can be much dearer than just buying the kit and doing it diy, but with advice from a friend who know how to fit the thing, anyone who has them seem to have good to say about them

I BOUGHT 1 solar panel and it's been quite a job to understand the quid pro quo check it out thoroughly first.

goat2

i am not doing it myself, i have a nephew that is trained in the installation and at the moment he does not have much work, he would be the installer, i was hoping to pick one of these at a surplus to requirement price, as when looking up the whole thing, and this grant, i beleive that most of the payment does not even go into the buying and installation of the system. i would not be going down the grant way,

tphase

Plan/design your system to suit your needs and look for affordable bits to achieve that rather than buying something that seems cheap and having that determine how you do things. There's some useful information here on do's and don'ts http://www.solarco-op.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=solarthermal&action=display&thread=20&page=1

Designing a system isn't that difficult (says he who hasn't installed his yet:)), my understanding of it is as follows.

Assuming you have a south-ish facing direction where you can mount a collector (anywhere south of east or west will do), the things you have to decide are:
. Collector type - flat panel or evacuated tubes (the latter for me, probably 58mm)
. Direct or indirect (I'll use indirect)
. Size - allow approx 1m2 per person in the house
. How to transfer the solar heat to your hot water tank (I will use an external heat exchanger which tees to the inlet and outlet of the tank. Simple, effective, minimal plumbing and disturbance.)
. Keep the existing tank or not. If you have a smaller than standard hot water tank or you intend to install a lot of collectors, it may be worthwhile investing in a solar tank - it will be bigger than normal and have an extra coil in the bottom. If not, you can almost certainly use your existing tank which is what I intend to do.

That's basically it.

After that, you start to get into the nitty gritty eg what bore piping to use, what type of circulation pump to use, how to mount the panel of the roof, etc etc.

Hope this helps
Gerry

goat2

tphase wrote: »

Plan/design your system to suit your needs and look for affordable bits to achieve that rather than buying something that seems cheap and having that determine how you do things. There's some useful information here on do's and don'ts http://www.solarco-op.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=solarthermal&action=display&thread=20&page=1

Designing a system isn't that difficult (says he who hasn't installed his yet:)), my understanding of it is as follows.

Assuming you have a south-ish facing direction where you can mount a collector (anywhere south of east or west will do), the things you have to decide are:
. Collector type - flat panel or evacuated tubes (the latter for me, probably 58mm)
. Direct or indirect (I'll use indirect)
. Size - allow approx 1m2 per person in the house
. How to transfer the solar heat to your hot water tank (I will use an external heat exchanger which tees to the inlet and outlet of the tank. Simple, effective, minimal plumbing and disturbance.)
. Keep the existing tank or not. If you have a smaller than standard hot water tank or you intend to install a lot of collectors, it may be worthwhile investing in a solar tank - it will be bigger than normal and have an extra coil in the bottom. If not, you can almost certainly use your existing tank which is what I intend to do.

That's basically it.

After that, you start to get into the nitty gritty eg what bore piping to use, what type of circulation pump to use, how to mount the panel of the roof, etc etc.

Hope this helps
Gerry

thanks gerry, yes i have a very big tank, my hotpress is huge and the tank stands floor to my nearly my own height, which i make out is about four and a half to five feet, i really am hoping to cut costs as i am no longer in a decent earning bracket, and i think by doing this i would be bringing down bill, also it is this or do up the kitchen which has lots of wear and tear, i would rather go down this route, and just put new floorcovering and a coat of paint in kitchen, and it is handy that i have a young fellow who is willing to help

ifah

have you worked out cost versus savings ?

I looked at it a while back and using some finger in the air figures figured probably at least 10 years to hit break even point on hot water alone.

tphase

a 10 year payback time is probably about right but as fuel costs rise, that will come down. It depends on how cheaply you can do it - doing as much as you can do yourself, sourcing components directly (or scavenging them)
etc. I have heard of installations costing anything from 2.5k to 9k, I would guess a DIYer could do it for a less, depending on what's required

goat2

tphase wrote: »

a 10 year payback time is probably about right but as fuel costs rise, that will come down. It depends on how cheaply you can do it - doing as much as you can do yourself, sourcing components directly (or scavenging them)
etc. I have heard of installations costing anything from 2.5k to 9k, I would guess a DIYer could do it for a less, depending on what's required

doing it as cheaply as possible is what i am after, and as for when does it pay back, well when it brings down bills and we have hotwater from tap without hitting switch, and i am wondering where the components can be bought at these recessive prices, forget about the prices a few yrs ago, it is todays prices i am after, i know a few of my neighbours who are on the look out like me, we do not have surplus cash, but we are looking to find ways of making cost of just surviving cheaper.

tphase

start by registering on the solar co-op forum, tons of useful info there and plenty of people willing to help