March 2008 Temperatures

[Paulh_Boats]

30 tubes, 120L, retro-coil, south-east facing, short 10mm pipes

Sunny Gloucestershire.

At 7pm:
Top of tank 71C  middle of tank 66C


No its not a typo! Yesterday's peak was 58C.

[Ivan]

Yesterday was overcast all day, and cold (around 6C) and we managed 44C at bottom of cylinder.

Today we managed 53 at bottom, 54 at top of tank. I didn't quite catch it before I ran off 20litres of hot water, but here's the screenshot of the TDC3 solar controller. That's 260litres of water heated...

[jeff.mowatt]

Just used mine for the first time this morning. Also in Gloucestershire.

I have 40 tubes on a south facing wall and with 4 hours sun today, the 210 litre tank temperature has been raised from 9 to 21c.

So thats about 3c an hour.

Jeff

[Ivan]

Totally dull and overcast today. No sunshine at all. Also constant drizzle from about lunchtime onwards. Outside temperature 9C. Worst scenario for my long piperuns. Nevertheless some solar input. Bottom of tank raised from 15C to 24C.

[O MidKnight]

This system only gets the sun after 0930 hours in the summer and 1230 hours in the winter

1200 x 450mm non solar dedicated twin coil cylinder (slightly more capacity and slightly less efficient heat exchange). Panels facing due south and have a total flow and return pipe work of approximately 54 metres in 10mm copper tube. 20 vacuum tubes and some old flat plate panels situated on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire

17/03  sunny

Start of solar gain temperature 38C Sensor 150mm from the top of cylinder

1 litres water drawn approx between start of solar gain and end of solar gain

End of solar gain temperature 49C

[Paulh_Boats]

From sunny (usually) Gloucestershire. 30 tubes/120L, facing south-east, retro-coil, insolation from just after sunrise to 3pm GMT.

Rubbish weather over the weekend, had to put the boiler on for one hour, first time for many weeks.

But today was mostly sunny. Top of tank went from 40C to 60C.

[Ivan]

SFA Solar Panel, full of water (140litres, 20 x 47mm tubes). Overcast all day until 3pm, when we had a couple of hours of late afternoon sunshine. Ambient temperature 9C. Sun still low in sky, so panel always in tree shadows at this time of year, although trees don't have leaves at the moment, so some sunshine gets through.

Temperature at top of tank 38C.


This panel is used to heat water for biodiesel washing, so 120litres of water used approx once a fortnight

[billi]

my folks installation ( a mile away from me)

10 sqm of flatpanels 1250 liter storage - today was sunny -

at 11 o clock morning (sun about 20-30 degrees of a right angle )

 upper thermostat  at  60 degrees
 middle thermostat  at 50
 lower thermostat  at 45 ( dad said at nine they had 35 degrees  at the lowest thermostat )


at 5 o clock

upper thermostat  at  68 degrees
 middle thermostat  at 65
 lower thermostat  at 65


regards billi


 the radiators are running now this evening

[Paulh_Boats]

Sunny Gloucestershire. 30 tubes/120L, facing south-east, retro-coil, insolation from just after sunrise to 4pm GMT.

Top of tank, 46C in the morning, 70C at 3pm

[Ivan]

I keep forgetting to check at the end of the day, so missing the final temperatures.

However, for reference, on the good sunny days we've seen so far, I'm getting around 40-42 at bottom of tank, and on the bad, overcast days, I'm seeing 30 - 34C - so even on poor march days, I am now getting some heat out of my long piperuns.

[O MidKnight]

This system only gets the sun after 0930 hours in the summer and 1230 hours in the winter

1200 x 450mm non solar dedicated twin coil cylinder (slightly more capacity and slightly less efficient heat exchange). Panels facing due south and have a total flow and return pipe work of approximately 54 metres in 10mm copper tube. 20 vacuum tubes and some old flat plate panels situated on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire

19/03 

Start of solar gain temperature 34C Sensor 150mm from the top of cylinder

1 litres water drawn

End of solar gain temperature 48C

[Ivan]

My system is now achieving 46-50C at bottom of the tank on a sunny day, and over 30C on a dull day.

Today I checked the SFA panel - 140litres of water at 50C. Not bad for late March, when you consider that the water is stored outside, so exposed to cold night air.

[Ivan]

Very dull day today. Rained virtually continuously and very overcast. Bottom of tank temperature 26C - so some solar gain, despite my 16+16m pipe runs and poor weather conditions.

[paul]

I know that being in Spain (and with lots of tubes) I'm cheating, but yesterday is a typical example:

90no. 47mm tubes, s.s.west
259ltr thermal store
16m pipe runs each way
1500by600 double rad winter heat dump (pool in summer)

Sunny 90% of the day, Start temps  49degC top, 42degC bot

12.15 pm 65.4 degC top, 65.2 degC bot.  Heat dump rad kicked in, rad got to 91 degC by 2pm. Put a 9" desk fan in front to dissipate more heat, dropped to 86deg. 

Rad was still at 78deg at 6pm.  Lounge/diner and open kitchen at a toasty 25degC (100 cubic metres).  Didn't have to light the log burner till 9-30pm.

Can wait to get some insulation in place!  Also thinking of a big heat dump store to feed heat to house in evenings (when I get time).

Cheers

Paul

[Ivan]

Sounds like with 90 tubes, you can make a very significant contribution to your space-heating needs in Spain.