January 2008 Temperatures

[Paulh_Boats]

30-tube panel, facing south-east, 120L tank, retro coil, short 16mm pipework.

Clear sunny morning, boiler off.

Collector | Top of tank  | Bottom of tank | Time | Activity

39.2   34.9   29.8   10:15
40.8   37.3   31.3   10:44
                            11:00     Washing machine started,  approx 13L on 40C cycle
                                         Hand dishwashing, approx 5L
42.4   38.7   32.7   11:19
                            11:20     Dishwasher started, approx 14L on 55C cycle, fed from hot water only
42.5   38.6   32.8   11:29
45.8   40      34.3   12:47     Weather turned cloudy
                            12:51     2nd Washing machine load, 40C cycle
37.3   37.6   28.6   14:09

So it looks like the hot water used today was almost free.   There would have been some electricity used to boost the washing machine to 40C and the dishwasher to 55C. The system performed well because there were no heat loses (e.g. tank cooling overnight) and high temperatures were not necessary.

Also at 14:09  2x64 Watt UniSolar panels connected to Soladin-120 grid tied invertor produced a peak of 44 Watts into the grid, but for most of the time generated 20-30 Watts.

-Paul

[Paulh_Boats]

30 tubes/120L retro-coil, south east facing.

Last Saturday, sunny all day.

Top of tank:

At 9am  30C

At 2pm  47C

At midday I turned off the pump as an experiment. The collector got to 97C when the air temp was 7C.

I'm convinced that solar heating in January is realistic... as long as its a sunny day.

[Paulh_Boats]

I had to double check this one with wifey! Very pleasing results:

30 tubes/120L retro-coil, short 10mm pipework, south east facing, roof mounted

Overnight frost, clear sunny day, clouded over after 2pm

Top   Middle      Time
33C     ?            8:00
45C     ?          11:20
58C     ?          14:05

54C   49.5C      19:09 after dishwasher started, plumbed into hot

Thats the first day over 50C this year.


Central heating was on for one hour 07:30 to 08:30, then one hour at 18:00.... but cylinder heating was most definately OFF! 

There was some contribution from pump overrun when central heating thermostat switches off. It dumps spare boiler heat into the cylinder, but only a degree or two.

[O MidKnight]

Yippee that`s great Paul. No doubt your short pipe runs are well insulated. Your flow and return, is it in its own insulation each pipe?

[Paulh_Boats]

O MidKnight,

Yes it great fun to get results like that and I think we are lucky the technology is affordable - thanks Ivan!

The 10mm flow and return from the tank are squeezed into one piece of 15mm Armiflex. Then about a metre from the panel they split and then blend into 15mm pipe to each end of the long manifold.
The pipe run in the loft is about 2.5m, plus 1m inside the airing cupboard.

[O MidKnight]

What part of the country are you situated?

[Paulh_Boats]

O Midknight,

Gloucestershire. 

A few miles north the land is called the "Golden Valley" ...some locals will say it gets more sun but I don't know of any evidence except that when I commute up the motorway the weather often gets worse into Worcestershire.

cheers
Paul

[KenB]

Guys,

15:15pm Feb 1st.

South west(ish) facing front roof has full head on sunshine.

Sun is still low in the sky,  so the first 30 metres of the back garden are in the shadow of the house - including the workshop roof where the 20 tube panel is temporarily mounted.

Solar pump turned on for a couple of hours this morning.

I need to relocate the panel to get better exposure, this was supposed to coincide with a loft conversion, which will not now be happening due to lack of funds.


Ken

[O MidKnight]

Ken it`s February now
Wake up! 

[Ivan]

Ken,

Were you thinking of doing the loft conversion yourself? I did my own, and it didn't cost very much (except the windows - they aren't cheap)

[KenB]

Ivan,

I'm usually prepared to tackle most building jobs - my dad was a timber framed builder - had his own company in the 1970s. Built some of the best insulated houses in Scotland between 1969 and 1976.

Elaine's brother is a bricklayer, and her father was a plumber for 50 years- so we have a good building heritage between us.

Sadly bureaucracy seems to triumph over natural ability and commonsense these days 


Ken