General Solar Thermal Systems Information
I am installing a drainback solar thermal system how do I facilitate proper drainback? In order for your system to "drainback" when the pump shuts off your collectors and piping must be sloped at 1/4" per 12" of run. Be aware that visually your collectors will not be parallel with your...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
