Everything you ever wanted to know (any maybe more) about SunMaxx solar thermal collectors, pre-packaged solar thermal kits and solar thermal system accessories is available in one place – these great solar thermal product detail and training videos.
Watch as Todd goes over on of the most popular tanks in the solar thermal business, the StorMaxx PTec Tank. The PTec tanks are high quality tanks loaded with features such as two internal coil heat exchangers, a large cleaning flange, enamel lining and a thick foam jacket.
StorMaxx PTEC Tanks Hi this is Todd Paternoster with SunMaxx Solar. I’d just like to take a few minutes to introduce you to our latest and greatest solar thermal storage tank. I took the top off to show you that we have a closed foam, there’s 2 inches of foam around this steel tank with an ice foam zipper jacket. One of the nice features about this is we have two coils. We have a bottom coil for the solar loop and a top coil to bring in extra heat from an indirect hot water heater. But another nice feature is this recirculation return loop. Stratification is optimizing not only your collector efficiency, but optimizing the number of BTUs you have in the tank. It’s all about the quality of the BTUs, not the number of BTUs. So with a recirculation return port such as this, we’re pulling off from the top of the tank and we’re coming right back into the top of the tank for our heat loop or for a domestic hot water tank, while we maintain the coldest part of the tank at the bottom for our solar input. Which means we have a longer run time and we have a higher efficiency on the tank. This tank is an enamel-lined, steel tank. So we have several barriers to corrosion, first one being the baked on enamel on the steel, but there’s also a magnesium anode, which is a beefier anode than you’ll typically find in hot water tanks. So we have a double barrier to corrosion, the enamel and the anode rod. There are two sensors, which is standard, the bottom sensor is used for solar tie-in, the top sensor port is used to tie into an indirect water heater or as a recirculation port, or as recirculation port for an existing hot water tie-in. They’re very manageable to move around. They’re relatively light weight as far as tanks go. They come in 50, 65, 80, 105, 130, and we’re exploring some much larger combitanks in to the 200-300 gallon range, which are going to be extremely effective at tying into home heating systems. So the SunMaxx StorMaxx PTEC tanks are a very good solution for preheat solar hot water systems and combisystem design. Thanks.
Join us as Todd Paternoster goes over the many benefits of the XMaxx Heat Wand. The XMaxx heat wand allows most residential customers to use their existing domestic hot water tank as their solar thermal storage tank as well. With a few turns of a wrench, most users can install this into their existing tank in a matter of minutes and use it to pre-heat the tank in order to reduce the amount of energy the tank requires.
XMaxx Heat Wand Hi, this is Todd Paternoster with SunMaxx. I’d like to show you for a moment a very unique product that we offer, the SunMaxx Butler Wand. What this is going to allow you to do is tie directly into an existing hot water tank without a preheat storage tank. It brings the cost down, especially for clients that don’t have the extra room for a preheat storage tank. Essentially what we have here is a double wand heat exchanger. It’s a solar wand, it fits inside of your hot water supply out of the tank. So, I’ve got my storage tank and I insert this into the hot water supply. Now this elbow becomes my hot water supply, so this is going to pour hot water out of the storage tank just like before. The difference here is that we’ve installed, we have a double-walled exchanger that’s inserted into this wand. So if you can follow me for a moment, I have a supplier return here, this copper tubing is braised to the inside of the top elbow. So what’s going to happen is as my heated fluid goes into the top, it’s going to go all the way down to the bottom, and it’s going to come out of that bottom. Well as it comes out of the bottom, it’s got to work its way, spiraling up, coming in contact with this twisted copper piping and exchanging heat, and as it comes through there, now the return back to the collectors is going to go up through here and come back down this way. So we’ve got the supply and the return, a double-walled heat exchanger, this is a tube in a tube system essentially, and it very easily threads into the hot water supply of most common household electric, gas, propane, fuel oil hot water tanks. No need for extra space, no need for extra cost. This is a very simple tie in, the SunMaxx Solar Wand is going to have a lot of applications in the residential home, domestic hot water market. Thanks.
Copper Coil Heat Exchangers Hi, this is Todd Paternoster, SunMaxx Solar. I’d like to take a moment to talk about our indirect hot water coils. These coils can be modified for both the solar loop, the heating loop, and domestic hot water loop. In conjunction with the non-pressurized storage tanks, we can modify these coils to do just about any load that you need to be done. They come in standard sizes. We typically build them in 60, 90, 120, and 180 foot coils, although there are a couple of modifications we can make for specific heat loads like radiant floor. Now, these coils are going to be inserted in the tank. They come with a small foot on the bottom, and that foot is going to sit on the bottom of the storage tank. They’re spaced so that we get a nice plume of convection. Inside of the storage tank we want the water as it heats up to rise up and through the coil and so we get a nice plume of convection through this coil. It has very effective heat exchange. A couple of things, I’ve heard several people wonder why we don’t have a larger coil, an inch diameter, an inch and a quarter, or even smaller diameter coil, and it really boils down to surface area to volume ratio. As we increase the surface area is responsible for heat exchange, but the surface area only increases by a factor of the square, while volume increases by a cube. So as we increase the volume by a cube, we don’t get the proportionate increase in surface area, so we lose the ability as you get larger. So this is really a time-tested design using this type L, ¾ inch copper coil heat exchanger. What we want to do is we want to know what your load is, we’re going to design which coil is most appropriate. We also want to know how many square foot of collector you have, then we’re going to design which coil is most appropriate. When it comes to hot water systems, it’s not so much the load that we’re looking for, but the flow rate that we’re after. We have to make sure we maintain no more than 5 feet per second through these coils. So if I’ve got 60 gallons per minute, I’m just going to put several of these in parallel. So, it’s very important that we get the appropriate information from you, and we’re going to design the coil that fits your application the best. The SunMaxx indirect StorMaxx NP non-pressure copper coil heat exchanger is a very nice customized approach to any of your problems.
TitanPower-AL2DH Flat Plate Collector Hi, this is Todd Paternoster, with SunMaxx Solar. We have another product I’d like to bring to your attention. This is the double harp style collector. This is a flat plate obviously, with a nice laser weld. The laser weld does increase the aesthetic appeal. Some people like the hidden welds as opposed to the welds that are apparent. This style you’ve got your two ports that are threaded connections, this is a half inch compression fitting that is a double harp, so we have two header risers essentially that are pinched in the middle. Very effective at large commercial jobs, we can put a lot of these in series. There’s internal piping that’s arranged in parallel manner. Additionally, there are little punch outs, weep holes, that I can orient this collector any way I want, and I punch the appropriate side out for the ventilation system. So this gives you the flexibility of doing the landscape or portrait installation, but also horizontal and vertical installation because I can create my own ventilation system with this collector.
Join us as Todd Paternoster and SunMaxx Solar go over some of the many benefits of the SunMaxx Solar TitanPower-AL2 solar thermal flat plate collector. TitanPower Flat Plate Product PageProduct Brochures
Join us as Todd Paternoster demonstrates the ConnectMaxx solar thermal mounting hardware. ConnectMaxx mounting hardware is extremely easy to assemble and offers the flexibility to adjust to fit your system with just a few turns of a wrench. ConnectMaxx Solar Mounting Hardware Product Page
In this video Jared, our product manager, explains the proper procedure for connecting two pieces of FlowMaxx pre insulated line set to further extend the range of your line set from your solar thermal tank to your ThermoPower evacuated tube solar collectors or TitanPower flat plate solar thermal collectors. Solar Line Set Product PageProduct Brochures
Watch as Jessica Wimmer explains the key features and benefits of the SunMaxx Solar filling station. Titled as the secret weapon for SunMaxx Solar in the solar thermal market, the solar filling station is several tools and components combined into one and all packaged on a easy to maneuver cart! Solar Filling Station Product Page
Watch as Ed gives an excellent demonstration on how snow and winter climates affect the SunMaxx Solar ThermoPower hot water collectors! ThermoPower Evacuated Tube Product PageProduct Brochures
