solar water

[OffGrid]

I have three recycled Novan 4x8 flat panels going to a 120G dual coil side arm tank. One coil for the panels the other coil to the boiler. Using them for domestic hot water, DHW. Live 60 miles west of Denver. Works well all year around. Summer.. tank is 155, winter 140.

My ratio is a slightly high. Square foot of panel to storage. 96ft to 120 gallons. 1.5 is suggested in my area. I believe the key is storage, lots of it.

Simple controls...20watt solar panel connected to a EL Sid DC circulation pump. The sun is shining the panels are warm the pump is circulating.

The 1000 btu's per square foot I believe is probably a little generous?

An excellent source for info is AAAsolar in New Mexico. Bought a few parts from them, Don, is a wonderful guy to deal with , lots of experience and knowledge.

Also check homepower.com AAASolar writes alot of articles for the magazine Homepower.

Kevin

 

[Dune]

The pearl of wisdom I am getting from this thread is to angle the panels to the best winter angle. In the summer there seems to be exess heat production anyway. It has been generaly assumed that in New Egland, one would have an exess of hot water in the summer, and an insufficient amount in the winter. I would love to see that hypothesis disproven.

 

[cbrodsky]

The pearl of wisdom I am getting from this thread is to angle the panels to the best winter angle. In the summer there seems to be exess heat production anyway. It has been generaly assumed that in New Egland, one would have an exess of hot water in the summer, and an insufficient amount in the winter. I would love to see that hypothesis disproven.

You are right - unfortunately, that optimal position rarely matches your roof. I see a lot of ugly installations in NY with panels jacked up off the roof at non-orthogonal angles to the rooflines that probably make a little more hot water than mine in the winter but just look awful. It's not something I was willing to do in our installation as I may someday sell our home and think most people would find those types of installations to be a serious detractor from "curb appeal."

South facing is still probably the most important factor for the northeast, and after that, the more angle the better.

-Colin