General Solar Thermal Systems Information

General Solar Thermal Systems Information

How Do I Determine Sun Angles Throughout the Year For My Location?

How Do I Determine Sun Angles Throughout the Year For My Location?

The University of Oregon provides a free online tool that does just this. Plug in your location and this tool will provide a PDF with precise sun data. With this information you can determine the appropriate distances to place your arrays so as not to shade them during certain parts of year or day increasing the efficiency of your system. Check it out at http://solardat.uoregon.edu/SunChartProgram.html.

Sample Sun Path Diagram

 

Do I Need To Mix The Glycol I Purchased From SunMaxx With Water?

Do I Need To Mix The Glycol I Purchased From SunMaxx With Water? No. You can commission your system with glycol strait out of the container. Our XMaxx Glycol Solution is not only premixed with distilled water but also made with bio-based raw materials and uses 20% less energy to produce than standard propylene glycol!

My sensor cable is only 4 feet long. How do I wire it from the controller all the way to the collectors?

My sensor cable is only 4 feet long. How do I wire it from the controller all the way to the collectors? First off, when wiring to the collectors, make sure you use the high temp sensor (usually black or red). One end of the sensor cable has the sensor, which needs to be at the hot end of the collector array, and the other end has crimped wires that fit easily and securely into controller slots. So, the best thing to do is cut the sensor cable in half, and use each half where it is meant to be used. How do you bridge the gap? Well, SunMaxx pre-insulated line set (corrugated stainless steel pipe) has a 2-strand wire cable embedded inside it just for that purpose. Use the wire in the return line from the collectors to connect the two halves of your sensor. Wire connections should be soldered and shrink wrapped. The SunMaxx “Sensor to Wire Connections” installation guide shows the step-by-step process.

What can I do with excess energy in the summer?

Three choices- Steam, Drain or Dump.  For most places in the US, there will be more solar gain in the summer than in the winter. This occurs during a time when your load is lowest, so that means EXCESS HEAT. You must deal with this if you are to design and/build a solar thermal system that stands the test of time. Steamback system- this system design will allow for the steaming of your heat transfer fluid during times when the pump is off. Normally this is somethin you try and avoid, but if designed properly you can use the steam pressure to your advantage by forcing the Glycol out of the collectors and allowing the system to stagnate. Many of the millions of systems installed in Europe use this design strategy. Drainback system- this system design will allow for the HTF to drain out of the collectors during times when the pump is off. If the collector is empty of fluid, then there is no danger of overheating. Long considered an american invention, the drainback system is a fail safe and fail proof AS LONG AS IT IS INSTALLED BY A TRAINED PROFESSIONAL. Drainback are typically NOT for your average DIY'er where Steamback IS. Dump- a heat dump is a place off of your solar loop where you can dump vast amounts of excess energy without negatively impacting any other aspect. Can someone say SWIMMING POOL? these are the best heat dumps because they not only can store huge amounts of BTU"s but also because a warm pool is a happy wife. An effective heat dump can also be a radiator with fan that blows air across the coil, a buried line, a large watering tank, a hot tub, finned copper lengths etc- these would all be piped in PARALLEL with the storage tank for best results. A  unique option for heat dumping is the Butler SPOC, by Sunmaxx, click here to view this product. This method of heat dumping is passive and 100% fail safe (if it installed properly) Mounting strayegy can also be used as effective over-temp protection. By tilting the collectors at a very steep angle, we can reduce our summertime production by nearly 40%

How long does it usually take to install a typical Solar Hot Water System?

Well, this all depends on many things. But for an average home with average difficulty level and experienced installer shouldnt take much more than two full days. I have seen some that were installed by two men in one full day and others that take a week. If you are using a pre-packaged system, such as the Heliomaxx Kits from Sunmaxx, they are designed to be assembled and commissioned with the utmost efficiency. A DIY'er can take on an installation by him/herself as long as they are comfortable with a little roofing and some minor plumbing. For homeowners, it is imperative that you use a pre-packaged system.

How long does it usually take to install a prepackaged DHW kit?

Well, that all depends but usually 2 workers can install a simple DHW kit and have it fully commissioned within 3 days. There are some cases where only 2 days is required and some days more. Our Heliomaxx kits are designed for simplicity and we expect that you shouldn't really need more than 48 total hours for a job and could be as low as 32.

Do I need any experience in electricity to install a solar water heater?

No, you do not. In fact, if you purchase a pre-packaged kit from Sunmaxx, the pump station (which is has the controller and pump  built in) simply has a 3-prong plug that you insert right into a 110v wall outlet. The only thing that you would need to do is to insert the sensor wire into the appropriate location on the controller. Luckily the sensor wire is non-polar so you can't mess it up (knock on wood).

How do I know if my system is performing the way it should be?

First of all, your system performance will be measured by BTU'S produced, NOT by temperature achieved. The simplest way to accomplish this is by following this method: 1- Record your solar tank temperature first thing in the morning, before the solar pump turns on. 2- be sure that no one uses hot water during this day. 3-Record your solar tank temperature at the end of the "solar" day 4-Perform this calculation to determine total btu's produced Change in tank temp Deg F x Total gallons in tank x 8.3 = total btu prod/day 5-View the SRCC certificate for estimated performance or call you SunMaxx sales rep to get an expected performance number

How do I size a solar hot water system for my household?

Typically, an american average consumption of 20 gallons of hot water per day per person can be used to size systems. There are some variations in that however so we need to be careful about just using rules of thumb. For most of the Sunmaxx TitanPower Flat plates and Thermopower Evacuated tubes will yield about 2 gallons of hot water per FT2 of collector. Therefore, we can say that for a family of 3, we would recommend about 30 ft of collector. This estimate will vary depending on the part of the world you are from. If you live in the northern climates, this system example would replace existing fuel by over 50%. In mid-latitudes, you could expect a 60-70 % reduction and in southern climates, as much as 85% reduction