Steve Firth wrote:

On Tue, 16 May 2006 17:18:10 +0100, Peter Parry wrote:


you also need to install an ion exchange water softener
otherwise the panel will quickly be ruined because of scale from the
hard water.


Say what? The water in the panel should be recirculated and contain rust
and scale inhibitors (as in a primary boiler circuit). The heat should be
transferred to a separate hot water cylinder of exactly the same type as is
used on non-solar systems.

Not on the system Mary was talking about - it takes cool water from the
cold DHW *feed* at the base the cylinder, runs it through the solar
panel (using a small PV powered solar pump connected via microbore
pipe), and returns it to the top of the cylinder via the DHW/vent outlet.

Hence the panel and pump are going to be being a reasonably frequent
supply of fresh water.

This seems to be one of the more useful documents:

http://www.solartwin.com/PDF/Method_Statement.pdf

(The only thing I can't see is how they prevent the solar pump running
when the cylinder temperature already exceeds the panel output temp...)

--
Cheers,

John.

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