Does anyone have good or bad experiences with any UK Solar Heating
suppliers/installers.. This is not really a DIY project but the total house
energy project is really DIY with, and often without, the help of
professionals. Any recommendations or people I should avoid?.
--
Michael in sunny Sussex

"Michael Shergold" wrote in message
...
Does anyone have good or bad experiences with any UK Solar Heating
suppliers/installers.. This is not really a DIY project but the total
house energy project is really DIY with, and often without, the help of
professionals. Any recommendations or people I should avoid?.
--
Michael in sunny Sussex



Have a look at http://www.navitron.org.uk/ - I had a system installed by one
of their recommended installers a few months back and the quality of the
product and installation are both excellent.

The system has delivered a surprising amount of energy, (better than I was
expecting) and even on cold days like we're getting now pre-heats the HW
cylinder so the boiler has less to do. I went with a data-logger option on
the solar controller so have been able to keep a close eye on what the
system does etc!

Regards,

Alan.



----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Unrestricted-Secure Usenet News==----
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On 8 Dec, 00:12, "Alan" wrote:
"Michael Shergold" wrote in message

...

Does anyone have good or bad experiences with any UK Solar Heating
suppliers/installers.. This is not really a DIY project but the total
house energy project is really DIY with, and often without, the help of
professionals. Any recommendations or people I should avoid?.
--
Michael in sunny Sussex

Have a look athttp://www.navitron.org.uk/- I had a system installed by one
of their recommended installers a few months back and the quality of the
product and installation are both excellent.

The system has delivered a surprising amount of energy, (better than I was
expecting) and even on cold days like we're getting now pre-heats the HW
cylinder so the boiler has less to do. I went with a data-logger option on
the solar controller so have been able to keep a close eye on what the
system does etc!


This am got tobe a SPAM setup SPAM SPAM

In message
, Chas
writes
On 8 Dec, 00:12, "Alan" wrote:
"Michael Shergold" wrote in message

...

Does anyone have good or bad experiences with any UK Solar Heating
suppliers/installers.. This is not really a DIY project but the total
house energy project is really DIY with, and often without, the help of
professionals. Any recommendations or people I should avoid?.
--
Michael in sunny Sussex

Have a look athttp://www.navitron.org.uk/- I had a system installed by one
of their recommended installers a few months back and the quality of the
product and installation are both excellent.

The system has delivered a surprising amount of energy, (better than I was
expecting) and even on cold days like we're getting now pre-heats the HW
cylinder so the boiler has less to do. I went with a data-logger option on
the solar controller so have been able to keep a close eye on what the
system does etc!


This am got tobe a SPAM setup SPAM SPAM

Yeah, don't forget kiddies, every time you buy from a spammer, an ickle
fluffy kitten dies

They must think we're ****ing stupid or something


--
geoff

On Fri, 7 Dec 2007 16:38:06 -0800 (PST), Chas
wrote:

On 8 Dec, 00:12, "Alan" wrote:
"Michael Shergold" wrote in message

...

Does anyone have good or bad experiences with any UK Solar Heating
suppliers/installers.. This is not really a DIY project but the total
house energy project is really DIY with, and often without, the help of
professionals. Any recommendations or people I should avoid?.
--
Michael in sunny Sussex

Have a look athttp://www.navitron.org.uk/- I had a system installed by one
of their recommended installers a few months back and the quality of the
product and installation are both excellent.

The system has delivered a surprising amount of energy, (better than I was
expecting) and even on cold days like we're getting now pre-heats the HW
cylinder so the boiler has less to do. I went with a data-logger option on
the solar controller so have been able to keep a close eye on what the
system does etc!


This am got tobe a SPAM setup SPAM SPAM

Why? The navitron site is a useful one.
It's certainly a very good place to start if you're looking at
renewable energies.
Or would you recommend B&Q?
--
http://www.orderonlinepickupinstore.co.uk
Ah fetch it yourself if you can't wait for delivery
http://www.freedeliveryuk.co.uk
Or get it delivered for free

On Fri, 7 Dec 2007 14:07:26 -0000, "Michael Shergold"
wrote:

Does anyone have good or bad experiences with any UK Solar Heating
suppliers/installers.. This is not really a DIY project but the total house
energy project is really DIY with, and often without, the help of
professionals.

It depends upon why you want Solar Water Heating,. If its to look
green then almost any supplier will do. If it's to save money then
none will as no commercial installation will pay back its installation
cost in its lifetime.

Solar Water heating is one of the easiest DIY projects BTW and doing
it yourself is the only way of coming anywhere near breakeven.

In message , Mogga
writes
On Fri, 7 Dec 2007 16:38:06 -0800 (PST), Chas
wrote:

On 8 Dec, 00:12, "Alan" wrote:
"Michael Shergold" wrote in message

...

Does anyone have good or bad experiences with any UK Solar Heating
suppliers/installers.. This is not really a DIY project but the total
house energy project is really DIY with, and often without, the help of
professionals. Any recommendations or people I should avoid?.
--
Michael in sunny Sussex

Have a look athttp://www.navitron.org.uk/- I had a system installed by one
of their recommended installers a few months back and the quality of the
product and installation are both excellent.

The system has delivered a surprising amount of energy, (better than I was
expecting) and even on cold days like we're getting now pre-heats the HW
cylinder so the boiler has less to do. I went with a data-logger option on
the solar controller so have been able to keep a close eye on what the
system does etc!


This am got tobe a SPAM setup SPAM SPAM

Why? The navitron site is a useful one.
It's certainly a very good place to start if you're looking at
renewable energies.
Or would you recommend B&Q?

Just look at the wording of the reply to the OP



--
geoff

"Peter Parry" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 7 Dec 2007 14:07:26 -0000, "Michael Shergold"
snipped
Solar Water heating is one of the easiest DIY projects BTW and doing
it yourself is the only way of coming anywhere near breakeven.

Can you recommend a DIY solar water heater site for information?

I can envisage using a large single panel steel radiator painted black and
mounted in a well insulated double glazed frame. I think that the Max
incoming solar energy is about 3 quarters of a Kw per sq M, and reduced by,
say approx 50% efficiency, is that reasonable ball park figures to start
with.
I also think that winter solar gain is only approx 10% of Max.

Does any one have any info or figures to add to the debate?
Don

"Peter Parry" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 7 Dec 2007 14:07:26 -0000, "Michael Shergold"
wrote:

Does anyone have good or bad experiences with any UK Solar Heating
suppliers/installers.. This is not really a DIY project but the total
house
energy project is really DIY with, and often without, the help of
professionals.

It depends upon why you want Solar Water Heating,.

The OP didn't specify water heating, which is why I didn't reply.

If its to look
green then almost any supplier will do. If it's to save money then
none will as no commercial installation will pay back its installation
cost in its lifetime.

You're wrong.

But there are other reasons than 'looking green' or recouping capital outlay
for wanting to use solar power.

Mary

"Donwill" popple @diddle .dot wrote in message
...

"Peter Parry" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 7 Dec 2007 14:07:26 -0000, "Michael Shergold"
snipped
Solar Water heating is one of the easiest DIY projects BTW and doing
it yourself is the only way of coming anywhere near breakeven.

Can you recommend a DIY solar water heater site for information?

Solartwin.

It's what we have, I've just switched on our boiler to heat water for
washing up. It wouldn't have been necessary except that I had a deep bath
this morning.

We're in Yorkshire.

Mary

In message , Mary Fisher
writes
"Donwill" popple @diddle .dot wrote in message
. ..
"Peter Parry" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 7 Dec 2007 14:07:26 -0000, "Michael Shergold"
snipped
Solar Water heating is one of the easiest DIY projects BTW and doing
it yourself is the only way of coming anywhere near breakeven.

Can you recommend a DIY solar water heater site for information?

Solartwin.

It's what we have, I've just switched on our boiler to heat water for
washing up. It wouldn't have been necessary except that I had a deep bath
this morning.

We're in Yorkshire.

Will it ever pay back those installation costs?

--
Si

In message , Mary Fisher
writes
"Peter Parry" wrote in message
.. .
On Fri, 7 Dec 2007 14:07:26 -0000, "Michael Shergold"
wrote:

Does anyone have good or bad experiences with any UK Solar Heating
suppliers/installers.. This is not really a DIY project but the total
house
energy project is really DIY with, and often without, the help of
professionals.

It depends upon why you want Solar Water Heating,.

The OP didn't specify water heating, which is why I didn't reply.

If its to look
green then almost any supplier will do. If it's to save money then
none will as no commercial installation will pay back its installation
cost in its lifetime.

You're wrong.

But there are other reasons than 'looking green' or recouping capital outlay
for wanting to use solar power.

? ...

--
Si

On Sat, 8 Dec 2007 17:43:12 -0000, "Donwill" popple @diddle .dot
wrote:


"Peter Parry" wrote

Can you recommend a DIY solar water heater site for information?

For a start, very few of the commercial ones as they almost all, to
put it mildly, overstate the effectiveness of solar water heating. You
will also find a lot a vague claims but few actual figures.

There are also inflated claims for the life of the systems. "Life" in
the solar industry seems to mean how long before it has to be
completely dismantled. Claims of 20-25 years are common but in that
time you would expect to replace the pump (perhaps several times), the
panel front plastic and other items. The cost of this can easily
exceed the purchase price.

I can envisage using a large single panel steel radiator painted black and
mounted in a well insulated double glazed frame.

Well the Solartwin panel Mary enthusiases about is simply two sheets
of thin aluminium riveted together in a few places with a length of
silicon rubber pipe run between them three times lengthways so it is
slightly squashed by the aluminium. This is in an aluminium case with
a foam back insulation and twinwall polycarbonate front. It's a cheap
construction with a relatively poor collection efficiency but produces
quite good overall efficiency by using a solar powered pump. (When
you are not collecting much energy in the first place a 25W pump
matters!)

The Solartwin by the way, although mildly interesting, has a slight
problem in that it is allergic to hard water so you either need to
factor in the cost of an ion exchange water softener or live in a soft
water area).

I think that the Max
incoming solar energy is about 3 quarters of a Kw per sq M, and reduced by,
say approx 50% efficiency, is that reasonable ball park figures to start
with.
I also think that winter solar gain is only approx 10% of Max.

Does any one have any info or figures to add to the debate?

Figures, as I have mentioned, are disliked by green proponents, they
think they create the wrong impression. They prefer things like "Wow
- lots of hot water in November" and "You won't believe how hot my
tank is".

Some sources of interest are the Energy Savings Trusts "Potential for
Microgeneration Study and Analysis, Final Report 14th November 2005"

www.berr.gov.uk/files/file27558.pdf

Of solar water heating they conclude

"Current status and potential - Currently the largest microgeneration
industry, installing 2000 units annually.
Generally, solar water heating is not cost effective at present
The technology is most effective if replacing electric heating
systems.
However, while capital costs are projected to reduce, the learning
rate appears low and it is not likely that solar water heating will
provide cost effective water heating over the timescales of the study
[up to 2050] without substantial grant support."

http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file16826.pdf
and
http://www.berr.gov.uk/files/file16544.pdf

are two DTI test reports on solar panels which give much of the
information you are looking for.

If you are heating your water by mains gas a single panel will save
you about £40 per year.

On Sat, 8 Dec 2007 20:12:38 -0000, "Mary Fisher"
wrote:


"Peter Parry" wrote

It depends upon why you want Solar Water Heating,.

The OP didn't specify water heating, which is why I didn't reply.

There isn't much scope for adding solar space heating to an existing
house in the UK.

If its to look
green then almost any supplier will do. If it's to save money then
none will as no commercial installation will pay back its installation
cost in its lifetime.

You're wrong.

No, I'm absolutely right and even organisations like the Energy Saving
Trust agree. In the UK no commercial solar water installation makes
economic sense.

But there are other reasons than 'looking green' or recouping capital outlay
for wanting to use solar power.

Hence the reason for asking why he wanted to do it. Some people do it
for pseudo religious reasons, some to impress their neighbours, some
through ignorance (the "everyone has to do their bit" fallacy) and
some do it out of interest. Without knowing the reason its difficult
to give the best advice.

On Sat, 8 Dec 2007 20:14:07 -0000, "Mary Fisher"
wrote:

How many kWh worth of energy in total did you gain from your solar
heating installation today Mary?

It was less than 3C (Got a constant frost warning in the car) and
gloomier than The Wreck of the Hesperus at 1-00 pm in Leeds, and dark
by soon after 3-00 pm.

OTOH The temperature of the water in our rising main was 7C, it would
be very easy to make a net heat loss from a solar water heating system
under these circumstances.

How many were you washing up for?

What kind of boiler/system and how big?

DG

Peter Parry wrote:

Solar Water heating is one of the easiest DIY projects BTW and doing
it yourself is the only way of coming anywhere near breakeven.

What do you think about using solar for heating a swimming pool? Lots of
low grade heat might actually be quite well suited to that application.


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

On Sat, 08 Dec 2007 23:36:33 +0000, Peter Parry
wrote:

Claims of 20-25 years are common

"25 years" Seems to have the status of a "Golden Number" in the
vocabulary of those promoting green technology, for whatever motive.
You know something along the lines of the "7 Seas", "7Deadly Sins"
and "7 Wonders of the World".

Curiously CFL's have been claimed to last 25 years, but we had one
fail yesterday, the third within a week. :-(

but in that
time you would expect to replace the pump (perhaps several times), the
panel front plastic and other items. The cost of this can easily
exceed the purchase price.

(snip)

DG

On 2007-12-09 02:15:59 +0000, Derek Geldard said:

On Sat, 08 Dec 2007 23:36:33 +0000, Peter Parry
wrote:

Claims of 20-25 years are common

"25 years" Seems to have the status of a "Golden Number" in the
vocabulary of those promoting green technology, for whatever motive.
You know something along the lines of the "7 Seas", "7Deadly Sins"
and "7 Wonders of the World".

Curiously CFL's have been claimed to last 25 years, but we had one
fail yesterday, the third within a week. :-(

It's like those wineboxes. It says on the box that once open they
last for 3 months, but they don't.....

On Sun, 9 Dec 2007 08:21:56 +0000, Andy Hall
wrote:

It's like those wineboxes. It says on the box that once open they
last for 3 months, but they don't.....

They do, I've never seen green scum and lumps in one less than 6
months old. As with solar panels it just depends on how you define
"lasts" :-)

On Sat, 8 Dec 2007, Peter Parry wrote:

On Sat, 8 Dec 2007 17:43:12 -0000, "Donwill" popple @diddle .dot
wrote:

Can you recommend a DIY solar water heater site for information?

For a start, very few of the commercial ones as they almost all, to
put it mildly, overstate the effectiveness of solar water heating. You
will also find a lot a vague claims but few actual figures.

Can I just add my own experiences here. While a student in Crete in
the early nineties, I stayed in a flat with solar water heating. It
worked well, but not in the winter (had to use immersion heater
from Dec to Feb, from memory, and I don't do baths).

What they call winter in Crete is an overcast June day in Scotland. I
agree, we are talking 15-20 years when the technology may have
matured, but Scotland has not moved any more south in the period :-)

I followed this thread with interest and I am not convinced there is a
case. YMMV.

Kostas

On 2007-12-09 09:37:39 +0000, Peter Parry said:

On Sun, 9 Dec 2007 08:21:56 +0000, Andy Hall
wrote:

It's like those wineboxes. It says on the box that once open they
last for 3 months, but they don't.....

They do, I've never seen green scum and lumps in one less than 6
months old.

But how do you make them last that long? I find that they are empty
long before that.......


As with solar panels it just depends on how you define
"lasts" :-)

That's for sure.

As soon as I see a product with a lot of "analogue" explanations of its
value, and a lot of case studies from people like Mrs Jones from
Burslem then I am suspicious.

Once there are the marketing promotions for the first customers in the
area, one intuitively knows that it is another case of Deceptus
Doubleglazia.

"Mogga" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 7 Dec 2007 16:38:06 -0800 (PST), Chas
wrote:

On 8 Dec, 00:12, "Alan" wrote:
"Michael Shergold" wrote in message

...

Does anyone have good or bad experiences with any UK Solar Heating
suppliers/installers.. This is not really a DIY project but the total
house energy project is really DIY with, and often without, the help
of
professionals. Any recommendations or people I should avoid?.
--
Michael in sunny Sussex

Have a look athttp://www.navitron.org.uk/- I had a system installed by
one
of their recommended installers a few months back and the quality of the
product and installation are both excellent.

The system has delivered a surprising amount of energy, (better than I
was
expecting) and even on cold days like we're getting now pre-heats the HW
cylinder so the boiler has less to do. I went with a data-logger option
on
the solar controller so have been able to keep a close eye on what the
system does etc!


This am got tobe a SPAM setup SPAM SPAM

Why? The navitron site is a useful one.
It's certainly a very good place to start if you're looking at
renewable energies.
Or would you recommend B&Q?
--
http://www.orderonlinepickupinstore.co.uk
Ah fetch it yourself if you can't wait for delivery
http://www.freedeliveryuk.co.uk
Or get it delivered for free


I've never been branded a spammer before! If you search through google
groups you'll find I've been posting here on and off for about 8 years, and
in that time probably only one other post was in connection to my solar
system, and I think that was asking for advise on dual coil HW cylinder
suppliers.

I'm just a happy customer of Navitron who didn't have time to DIY the solar
system hence used an installer.

If anyone is interested in seeing the data recorded by the data logger to
see for themselves what energy the system has delivered just let me know.

I agree with the others that the pay-back time will be considerable, but I
knew that from the beginning and plan to stay in this house long enough for
it to be worthwhile.

Alan.



----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Unrestricted-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 120,000+ Newsgroups
----= East and West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =----

On Sat, 08 Dec 2007 00:55:36 +0000, geoff wrote:

In message
, Chas
writes
On 8 Dec, 00:12, "Alan" wrote:
"Michael Shergold" wrote in message

...

Does anyone have good or bad experiences with any UK Solar Heating
suppliers/installers.. This is not really a DIY project but the
total house energy project is really DIY with, and often without,
the help of professionals. Any recommendations or people I should
avoid?. --
Michael in sunny Sussex

Have a look athttp://www.navitron.org.uk/- I had a system installed by
one of their recommended installers a few months back and the quality
of the product and installation are both excellent.

The system has delivered a surprising amount of energy, (better than I
was expecting) and even on cold days like we're getting now pre-heats
the HW cylinder so the boiler has less to do. I went with a
data-logger option on the solar controller so have been able to keep a
close eye on what the system does etc!


This am got tobe a SPAM setup SPAM SPAM

Yeah, don't forget kiddies, every time you buy from a spammer, an ickle
fluffy kitten dies

They must think we're ****ing stupid or something

quite. The one thing he does NOT mention is the price.
It's probably worth investigating if the total installed price is under
£1000, but I better the data logger option cost more than that.


--
Ed Sirett - Property maintainer and registered gas fitter.
The FAQ for uk.diy is at http://www.diyfaq.org.uk
Gas fitting FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/GasFitting.html
Sealed CH FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/SealedCH.html
Choosing a Boiler FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/BoilerChoice.html

On Sun, 09 Dec 2007 01:37:20 +0000, John Rumm wrote:

Peter Parry wrote:

Solar Water heating is one of the easiest DIY projects BTW and doing it
yourself is the only way of coming anywhere near breakeven.

What do you think about using solar for heating a swimming pool? Lots of
low grade heat might actually be quite well suited to that application.

Well the technology starts with a cover which simply allows the heat in
and prevents evaporative cooling. Other features which makes it
attractive a
Not needed when solar less available.
No need for anti freeze as the pool can be decomissioned during the
winter.
Can heat the pool water directly. Low tech, low cost (thermo-syphon)
collectors as used in "hot countries" are suitable.

--
Ed Sirett - Property maintainer and registered gas fitter.
The FAQ for uk.diy is at http://www.diyfaq.org.uk
Gas fitting FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/GasFitting.html
Sealed CH FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/SealedCH.html
Choosing a Boiler FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/BoilerChoice.html

On Sun, 9 Dec 2007 10:31:31 -0000, "Alan" wrote:


I agree with the others that the pay-back time will be considerable, but I
knew that from the beginning and plan to stay in this house long enough for
it to be worthwhile.

So _you_ are the one with the secret of immortality? Is it wise to
allow this to be known?

"Si" $3o&m wrote in message
...
In message , Mary Fisher
writes
"Donwill" popple @diddle .dot wrote in message
.. .
"Peter Parry" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 7 Dec 2007 14:07:26 -0000, "Michael Shergold"
snipped
Solar Water heating is one of the easiest DIY projects BTW and doing
it yourself is the only way of coming anywhere near breakeven.

Can you recommend a DIY solar water heater site for information?

Solartwin.

It's what we have, I've just switched on our boiler to heat water for
washing up. It wouldn't have been necessary except that I had a deep bath
this morning.

We're in Yorkshire.

Will it ever pay back those installation costs?

Oh yes, it's well on the way.

But as I keep saying, there's more to buying anything than payback time.
It's not something we considered.

What's the payback time on a pair of shoes? A holiday? A bar of chocolate?

Mary

--
Si

"Derek Geldard" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 8 Dec 2007 20:14:07 -0000, "Mary Fisher"
wrote:

How many kWh worth of energy in total did you gain from your solar
heating installation today Mary?

Not measured.

It was less than 3C (Got a constant frost warning in the car) and
gloomier than The Wreck of the Hesperus at 1-00 pm in Leeds, and dark
by soon after 3-00 pm.

It wasn't dark until after 4 in our part of Leeds and it wasn't cold enough
for the CH to come on

I assume you had the heating on in your car ... :-).

We haven't bothered measuring since the first few days after connection.
That day it was 4C in the shade and at the end of the day we ended up with a
large tank full of water at over 30C.

OTOH The temperature of the water in our rising main was 7C, it would
be very easy to make a net heat loss from a solar water heating system
under these circumstances.

It hasn't happened to us.

How many were you washing up for?

Three - why?

What kind of boiler/system and how big?

Irrelevant. The sun provides the majority of our domestic hot water, the
boiler provides the heating for the radiators - which are hardly ever been
on.

Why on Earth are people so antagonistic towards something of which they have
no personal experience?

"Peter Parry" wrote in message
...
snip stuff

If you are heating your water by mains gas a single panel will save
you about £40 per year.

Ours has saved us far more than that. Far more.

And it;'s not just the little woman who enthuses about our system, I didn't
even make the initial decision.

Your assumptive dismissals discredit everything else you say - although some
of it might be true it's hard to pick out the good bits.

"Peter Parry" wrote in message
...

Hence the reason for asking why he wanted to do it. Some people do it
for pseudo religious reasons, some to impress their neighbours, some
through ignorance (the "everyone has to do their bit" fallacy) and
some do it out of interest. Without knowing the reason its difficult
to give the best advice.

Oh don't be silly. Who are you trying to convince, yourself?

"Ed Sirett" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 08 Dec 2007 00:55:36 +0000, geoff wrote:

In message
, Chas
writes
On 8 Dec, 00:12, "Alan" wrote:
"Michael Shergold" wrote in message

...

Does anyone have good or bad experiences with any UK Solar Heating
suppliers/installers.. This is not really a DIY project but the
total house energy project is really DIY with, and often without,
the help of professionals. Any recommendations or people I should
avoid?. --
Michael in sunny Sussex

Have a look athttp://www.navitron.org.uk/- I had a system installed by
one of their recommended installers a few months back and the quality
of the product and installation are both excellent.

The system has delivered a surprising amount of energy, (better than I
was expecting) and even on cold days like we're getting now pre-heats
the HW cylinder so the boiler has less to do. I went with a
data-logger option on the solar controller so have been able to keep a
close eye on what the system does etc!


This am got tobe a SPAM setup SPAM SPAM

Yeah, don't forget kiddies, every time you buy from a spammer, an ickle
fluffy kitten dies

They must think we're ****ing stupid or something

quite. The one thing he does NOT mention is the price.
It's probably worth investigating if the total installed price is under
£1000, but I better the data logger option cost more than that.


Data logger is the Resol DL1, which cost about £150. It's just a data
connecton to the solar controller, and has 2mb memory on board. Enough for
about 3 months of readings, taken every 5 minutes, of 18 variables such as
temperatures, pump speeds, heat transferred etc.

Entire system with 30 evacuated tube panel, controller, datalogger, pump,
pipework and installation was under £2900.
If I had time to do it myself cost would have been about half that.

Alan.

Alan.



----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Unrestricted-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 120,000+ Newsgroups
----= East and West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =----

On Sun, 09 Dec 2007 01:37:20 +0000, John Rumm
wrote:

Peter Parry wrote:

Solar Water heating is one of the easiest DIY projects BTW and doing
it yourself is the only way of coming anywhere near breakeven.

What do you think about using solar for heating a swimming pool? Lots of
low grade heat might actually be quite well suited to that application.

They don't do it in Florida or at least heat pumps or boilers are the
usual method of choice. Swimming pools use enormous amounts of heat,
it would take a large area of rather ugly solar panels and piping in
the garden and the kit would probably deteriorate in the full sun of a
Florida summer.

Google for swimming + pool + heater and the only solar pool heater
returned on the first page is a UK advertisement.

http://www.solarpoolheater.co.uk/strap.htm

That says something, ( Brrrrrrr ) .

DG

In message , Alan
writes
Data logger is the Resol DL1, which cost about £150. It's just a data
connecton to the solar controller, and has 2mb memory on board. Enough for
about 3 months of readings, taken every 5 minutes, of 18 variables such as
temperatures, pump speeds, heat transferred etc.


all that in 1/500th of a byte ?

cunning



--
geoff

On Sun, 9 Dec 2007 10:33:01 +0000 (UTC), Ed Sirett wrote:

It's probably worth investigating if the total installed price is under
£1000, but I better the data logger option cost more than that.

Look at the (retail) price list on the Navitron site. DL1 data logger
£150... Though I don't know how many "extras" are required.

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail

Michael Shergold wrote:

Does anyone have good or bad experiences with any UK Solar Heating
suppliers/installers.. This is not really a DIY project but the total house
energy project is really DIY with, and often without, the help of
professionals. Any recommendations or people I should avoid?.

I'd also recommend going the DIY route. The kit I have used is a heat
bank from Dedicated Pressure Systems Ltd (DPS) with a Resol Controller
and three 20 tube thermal solar panels bought from eBay. Sadly the
supplier of the panels based in Bristol seems to have ceased trading -
he's no longer registered as a trader. However the design is a common
one so spare vacuum tubes are available from Navitron and other
suppliers.

http://www.heatweb.com/

Installation is perfectly simply if you are happy with working on a roof
and the DPS system comes complete with an excellent installation guide.
The purchase cost was £2000. Installation took three days but I was
hardly working flat out to do it. It could have been done easily within
a day.

Preparation was important, the thermal store was installed in the roof
void above a new bathroom constructed with block walls and a reinforced
concrete roof. The heat bank also takes hot water from a log burning
stove, and LPG boiler and in the near future we will probably add a
boiler using chipped wood as fuel.

One potential problem for us is that on a realy good day we can collect
ar more heat than we can use. So before next summer I'm going to install
a heat dump of some sort. The quick and dirty solution is a radiator to
dump the heat to atmosphere, a more sensible solution is to put the heat
into a large store of water. I was thinking of placing a 2 tonne store
into the ground and using this as a pre-heater for incoming water in
winter.

On Sun, 9 Dec 2007 11:59:42 -0000, "Mary Fisher"
wrote:

Ours has saved us far more than that. Far more.

Last October you did mention you would post the savings you made after
one year. You may already have done so and I could have missed it but
I would be interested in knowing the figure if its available.

On Sun, 09 Dec 2007 01:37:20 +0000, John Rumm
wrote:


What do you think about using solar for heating a swimming pool? Lots of
low grade heat might actually be quite well suited to that application.

I'll let you know next year - a neighbour has a small pool we are
fitting a home made black pipe heater up to as an experiment.

On Sun, 09 Dec 2007 13:18:14 GMT, geoff wrote:

connecton to the solar controller, and has 2mb memory on board.

all that in 1/500th of a byte ?

Make that a bit not byte... Though the use of b for bit and B for byte is
very open for discussion. m is definitely milli or 1/1000th rather than M
for mega or 1,000,000. B-)

--
Cheers
Dave. pam is missing e-mail

In message et, Dave
Liquorice writes
On Sun, 09 Dec 2007 13:18:14 GMT, geoff wrote:

connecton to the solar controller, and has 2mb memory on board.

all that in 1/500th of a byte ?

Make that a bit not byte... Though the use of b for bit and B for byte is
very open for discussion. m is definitely milli or 1/1000th rather than M
for mega or 1,000,000. B-)


Yes, the law of the pedantic corrector making a mistake was alive and
kicking there

--
geoff

John Rumm wrote:

Peter Parry wrote:

Solar Water heating is one of the easiest DIY projects BTW and doing
it yourself is the only way of coming anywhere near breakeven.

What do you think about using solar for heating a swimming pool? Lots of
low grade heat might actually be quite well suited to that application.

I've used a small black painted radiator in an aluminium box with a 4mm
glazed front panel to play around with while deciding on optimum
locations or solar heating. On a good day the panel (approx 1 square
metre) could provide 100 litres of hot water a day. The problem is that
the panel needs to be used with a primary fluid containing
anti-corrosion agents and with a heat exchanger. You would also need one
heck of a lot of panel to make it worthwhile.

Another unintentional experiment was the use of a solar fence. I had
clipped 50 metres of black plastic tubing to a fence to supply cold
water to a barn. In the summer we didn't get cold water just very, very
hot water. I've considered making a solar fence which is much less
obtrusive than large panels lying around the lawn. Also since the tubing
is plastic, there's no problem with simply pumping the water from the
swimming pool around it as the primary fluid.

On Sun, 9 Dec 2007 11:56:49 -0000 Mary Fisher wrote :
Why on Earth are people so antagonistic towards something
of which they have no personal experience?

Because lots of us know that in a significant number of cases
solar water heating is a mechanism for transferring money from
well meaning but gullible householders to smooth talking
salesmen. And if they spend their commission on big cars the
environmental benefit is nil.

It may make economic sense if you use a lot of hot water, can
DIY, and use a fuel other than mains gas, otherwise probably not.

--
Tony Bryer SDA UK 'Software to build on' http://www.sda.co.uk