Thread: Solar hot water Sucks

Quote:
with a growing family the solar HWS was a real boon and cost effective over 10 yrs. Now I live in sunny Bris... growing family all grown and living elsewhere ... solar HWS? nup... would take 15 yrs at least to recover the cost...


should explain...I am a fan of SHW in the right circumstances...the 15yrs estimate is due to the fact that there's only 2 of us now and we use bgr all hot water compared with times previous.

I have an electric (off peak = cheaper electricity) HWS tank in the roof.

If/when it packs up I will have to install a solar system. No choice. In South Australia you are now only allowed a gas or a solar system. Electric is no longer allowed

And of course I don't have gas.

And don't think they only freeze down south.We lived at Waterford,a suburb on the southern outskirts of Brisbane for many years & our solar heart burst after freezing up one very cold August morning.
The comment those days,around 15 yrs ago,was they should have a small heater in the unit to stop it freezing.

I can't speak highly enough of the Solar Hart. We installed ours in 1978 and it is still going strong. We have "frost protectors" installed on ours, which is simply a copper disc in the lower end of the lower end of each panel. These did pop out once, many years ago and it was simply a matter of knocking them flat again and inserting a new O ring.

There was a cold climate kit available for our unit which entailed a pipe heater and thermostat, but we were advised that this was not required in South West Sydney. We get good frosts on a few days each year, covering the roof of our house.

***TOUCH WOOD***

Erich

Originally Posted by Bundalene

I can't speak highly enough of the Solar Hart. We installed ours in 1978 and it is still going strong. We have "frost protectors" installed on ours, which is simply a copper disc in the lower end of the lower end of each panel. These did pop out once, many years ago and it was simply a matter of knocking them flat again and inserting a new O ring.

There was a cold climate kit available for our unit which entailed a pipe heater and thermostat, but we were advised that this was not required in South West Sydney. We get good frosts on a few days each year, covering the roof of our house.

***TOUCH WOOD***

Erich

This system is the old solar hart,

as mentioned earlier they use glycol now as a heat exachanger instead of the old system,

I am not a fan of solar hot water as such, I now have a 440L solar hart system on the roof, it is not as hot as our old electric (it was not that old either) and can't be turned up anymore.

If I had my time again I would not change over to solar until the electric unit has died.

I think (lots of rumours) NSW is going the same way as mentioned SA is: can only have gas or solar

Originally Posted by miky

I have an electric (off peak = cheaper electricity) HWS tank in the roof.

If/when it packs up I will have to install a solar system. No choice. In South Australia you are now only allowed a gas or a solar system. Electric is no longer allowed

And of course I don't have gas.

There's always ebay, you'd be surprised how many good low mileage HWS tanks get ripped out and replaced during renovations. I spent ages looking for a good replacement for my LPG instant heater which was a real guts of gas. Finally found a "Quantum" heat pump HWS which produces all of our hot water for about 1/3 of the cost of the bottle gas one. And I found it on ebay for about 1/4 the cost of a new one, like only $800. I had to go over to Seymour in Vic to pick it up though, cost me another $300. But still cheap and counts as solar as far as the SA govt is concerned.

Solar hot water Sucks ...not at all it should be pumped it must be put together wrong

Originally Posted by digger

...Im not up on all that stuff, still a fan of the donkey hot water system...
(some will know what that means!) or an AGA!

cheers
digger

You're making me think of Scout camps, from when I was a much younger lad.

Is a Donkey a 10 gallon drum, set sideways over a fire, with a funnel on top?

I think we called them Piddling Percy's....