"Fredrick Skoog" wrote:

Hi All,

I am considering getting a solar heated hot water system and have been
quoted for either the flat panels or the tubes. The guy who quoted for the
tubes said that they were more efficient, less susceptable to dirt (i.e.
bird **** was more likely to splat between them rather than all over them)
and any damage was more likely to mean the replacement of a tube or two
rather than then whole panel (he obviously had a thing against birds as he
cited an example of a bird dropping a stone or some such)

The next guy was all for the flat panels reckoning that the difference in
efficiency was marginal, that the tubes had some inherent issue with
overheating the heat-transfer fluid and that they were more expensive with
no real gain.

I would be extremely interested in other people's experiences and comments
to try and sort the wood from the trees.


I don't know the answer, but I had colleagues who were facing a
similar choice and went to the Centre for Alternative Technology for
advice:

http://www.cat.org.uk/

There is an excellent free information service at:

http://www.cat.org.uk/information/info_content.tmpl