Thread: Solar hot water Sucks

that donkey heater, how would it be if you used a 44 gal drum the ones they use for honey as they are stainless steel and have it off of the ground about 18 inches and wrap a mirrow around it to reflect the suns rays onto it that would give you mega free hot water

Lorella Springs NT has a great one.
Its a car radiator in the bowl of an old Copper. Water is run through the radiator by a pressure pump for the showers.

Quobba Station also has more traditional ones with the 44gallon drum and a pressure pump for teh showers.

I saw/used a good variation at a sheep station in Qld. They have a pipe vertical like a flagpole to provide a head so that the showers work. I think it was sealed so that the hot water ran up the pipe on expansion thus creating a head.
Regards Philip A

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.

I hope for your sake that you at least have gas going past the front door.

We had to replace our gas HWS last year, but since the new regs, we would have had to increase the size of the gas line, increase the size of the water line, and install a power point next to the unit.

The unit would have been the cheapest part, with all the new connections the install would have cost MEGA $$$.

Fortunatly, we found a brand new one exactly the same as the old one interstate, and had it sent over.

we have had our solar panel hot water system for about 23 years and not one problem,works most of the time and saves us heaps of money

Originally Posted by richard4u2

that donkey heater, how would it be if you used a 44 gal drum the ones they use for honey as they are stainless steel and have it off of the ground about 18 inches and wrap a mirrow around it to reflect the suns rays onto it that would give you mega free hot water

Im rating this idea!

We had ours fitted about 4 months ago...and ours is good down to -15 I believe.

Originally Posted by dullbird

We had ours fitted about 4 months ago...and ours is good down to -15 I believe.

hi Dullbird, What breed is yours?

Originally Posted by Gillie

hi Dullbird, What breed is yours?

I can't remember..hahahahahahah

Although it has ecosmart written on the tank.

Ours is glycol (spelling?) based which allows it to be able to endure much lower temperatures.

When getting the quote there was two systems available..I can't remember for sure now but one I think was to like 4/0 degrees and the other one which we got (even though we were unlikely to get to those temps) was something like -15...Its cost a little bit more but we decided best way to go.

we have had very low temps recently...not in the minuses though! and it has been working like a dream...and in fact we only had to put the booster pump on last month.

Muddymech knows a hell of a lot more about the system as he did a hell of a lot of reading before we got the unit put in and spoke to a lot of companies so if you have any other questions probably best to ask him

oh ours is also a unit with a tank in the house not on the roof (suddenly thought I should probably put that in)