Thread: Edwards Solar Hotwater system

We have a Dux unit 315l tank on the ground and panels on the roof. Electric boosted. I like the idea of not having 315kg of water sitting in one place on the roof.

They are made in the Southern Highlands of NSW and work very well here in Tassie. We are most happy with it.

As for running costs very good we can hook our unit up to tarrif 41 which is our cheaper tarrif for heating and hot water.

Very pleased. Cost around $3200.00 including frost valve. Then you can minus recs and other rebates (plus install).

Just another option for those considering

Originally Posted by Piddler

We have a Dux unit 315l tank on the ground and panels on the roof. Electric boosted. I like the idea of not having 315kg of water sitting in one place on the roof.

They are made in the Southern Highlands of NSW and work very well here in Tassie. We are most happy with it.

As for running costs very good we can hook our unit up to tarrif 41 which is our cheaper tarrif for heating and hot water.

Very pleased. Cost around $3200.00 including frost valve minus recs and other rebates (plus install).

Just another option for those considering

I doubt that would have been a problem specialy with our roof having hardwood timber , being an older style house . our whole system cost around $2600.00 with rebates and REC's . was actually a really good deal i thought. see how we go with the savings and i will update this thread with the OPHW metre readings.

Morning,

In the NT we had to get what is called a "one shot switch". It's a press button switch, when pressed the booster is on for about 1 hour to heat the water then turns off automatic. We got a solarhart with all the rebates we were out of pocket about $700, thats 3 years ago. We are moving to Bega very soon and need a new hot water system so I am hoping to get the same one shot switch fitted to the solar hot water. I will control when the booster is not the power company.

Originally Posted by Piddler

We have a Dux unit 315l tank on the ground and panels on the roof. Electric boosted. I like the idea of not having 315kg of water sitting in one place on the roof.

They are made in the Southern Highlands of NSW and work very well here in Tassie. We are most happy with it.

As for running costs very good we can hook our unit up to tarrif 41 which is our cheaper tarrif for heating and hot water.

Very pleased. Cost around $3200.00 including frost valve. Then you can minus recs and other rebates (plus install).

Just another option for those considering

Not a problem for any roof – have you any idea how much wind load is on the average roof during a good breeze – tonnes.
A split system also has to run an electric pump as apposed to thermo syphoning.

Hi Disco owner.
We have the same system you have installed (2 adults + 2 kids), I agree with comments about a switch, I don’t have one but use the circuit breaker in the meter box – over summer it was off for 5 months, when it rains during summer it can easily last 2-3days because the hot water usage is low. Winter this year it was turned on 8 times due to rain.

I found that the booster was running quite a bit when left on. Our water usage is both night and early morning and I found that the booster was running after morning showers (quite offen the overnight HW tarrif doesn't switch off - in QLD it is network load dependant not time) - as we are leaving the house for the day and the sun is just coming onto the panels.

I’m thinking of installing an X10 receiver to turn the circuit on at 4pm for 2 hrs (if its been sunny it won’t run) – the only annoying thing is getting home to a cold system – kids don’t have much patience.

Pretty sure you will never recoup the $ cost but hey, we’re doing our part, and we can’t really say how much power will go up.

I have a switch in the meter box connected to a timer.

It switches the booster on in the morning before we get up for a couple of hours and on again at the end of the day before we get home.

That way no matter what the weather is like the water is always hot.

It is still thermostatically controlled, so even when on the booster only heats if it needs to.

Couldn't be easier.

No manual switching on and off, no guessing if the water is hot, just set and forget - that's the way I like it.

I've been outside again to take another metre reading from the OPHW metre ;

Meter reading # 2 = 07164

from the calculation if this is correct

7164 -7069 kw / 11 days = 8.64 kw per day on average , it's been 11 days since the first metre reading , we've had a couple of coudy days in syd in which case I had the booster switch to the ON position , but for 2 full days the booster was off and the panels were getting the water hot enough for washing and shower. I'm pretty happy with the energy saving/usage so far.

We find on most cloudy days we will still have hot water - there's still solar energy being trapped under the glass, that’s why I leave it turned off for such long periods, its really only seams to be rain that stumps the Edwards HWS.