Solar Thermal And Combi

[Wayne Campbell]

I have a Worcester Greenstar 40 HE combi and want to fit solar thermal, The only way I can see is using a Solar combi diverter valve with a pre heat tank. Does anyone have any other ideas on this?





Thanks

 

[Mike Jackson]

Check with Worcester that their boiler is solar compatible, not all are.

 

[Gray0689]

Do it right and put in a solar cylinder if you have the room

 

[Kev the gas]

I did the solar thermal course at Worcesters and was told their boilers are not compatible ie water entering the boiler @ say 30 degrees is not within the paramiters of what the boiler is used to dealing with.

Unless the water can totally bypass the boiler it will not be compatible.

As said before, install a storage cylinder otherwise the cost of installation would struggle to pay for its self. I have 300 ltr cylind and 2 flat panels, both Worcester products and they work great.

 

[Mike Jackson]

Fit an unvented solar cylinder and use the worcester as a system boiler. Perhaps feed the kitchen from the combi.

 

[chris watkins]

Check out the Alpha boilers web site, they have a system which links a combi with solar.
SolarSmart 100

 

[Gray0689]

It's only 100ltr storage not enough in my opinion
I like tubes far better than flat panels

 

[chris watkins]

It's only 100ltr storage not enough in my opinion
I like tubes far better than flat panels

Me to, but beggars (combi owners) can't be choosers !!
Take away the standing losses of a standard size indirect storage cylinder & its not a bad option IMHO.

 

[Gray0689]

An expensive option as it will not have payback

 

[Kev the gas]

It's only 100ltr storage not enough in my opinion
I like tubes far better than flat panels

My first choice was tubes but my house is about 25 mtrs from the beach, I need to clean the panels quite often as they get covered in salt ect. I thought the flat panels would be easier to clean.

 

[chris watkins]

An expensive option as it will not have payback

eer.. which solar system will ? in that respect they are no different. IMHO that is no reason not to fit them, it is not all about how many years it takes to get your money back.

 

[peteheat]

My first choice was tubes but my house is about 25 mtrs from the beach, I need to clean the panels quite often as they get covered in salt ect. I thought the flat panels would be easier to clean.

I always advise tubes near the sea and at high altitudes because both locations might be fine in summer but can be very cold in winter, flat panels tend to lose a lot of heat and as they are not sealed or double glazed IMHO they are likely to be using any heat gained to warm the panel instead of the raising the temperature and sending the heat to the cylinder.

I also advise Kingspan Thermomax tubes for the above locations as they are possibly one of the only ones that is really a vacuum tube.

 

[Gray0689]

My favourite are thermomax

 

[Gray0689]

Niether to be honest
But tubes are far far better imho

 

[peteheat]

My personal favorite from a performance point of view are Ritter, smaller, neater easier to install and the frame used makes the roof mounting a lot more solid / secure than Thermomax.

That said they use a "Sydney Tube" which is not a complete vacuum like the Thermomax system, my wish list would have the the Thermomax tube on a Ritter system the results from such a system would be amazing considering we can get the same performance from 18 Ritter tubes that we get from 30 Thermomax (both U tube not heat pipe).

 

[markfxy]

Ecotube are without doubt the most efficient tubes over 850 kw per sq meter per year, easy to clean due to large diameter and youll also need less of them. Having said that I'd still go for sonnenkraft flat plates

 

[eaton]

Hate thermomax, overpriced carp,

 

[chris watkins]

Hate thermomax, overpriced carp,

No, come on, stop beating around the bush, tell us what you really think of the thermomax, eaton. LOL

 

[eaton]

Haha, I will.

 

[Gray0689]

Hate thermomax, overpriced carp,

What ones do you like then

 

[eaton]

Cheap Chinese, doesn't matter which, nice, simple and cost effective. Know a bloke who sells a lot of solar and he has had so many issues with thermomax. Stagnation is the biggest issue. I've fitted about 10 differant makes of tubes and panels and you honestly can go wrong with a cheap Chinese kit

 

[Gray0689]

I have fitted about 30 sets of thermomax
And never been back to a single one
And you like cheap chinese crap lol

 

[peteheat]

Cheap Chinese, doesn't matter which, nice, simple and cost effective. Know a bloke who sells a lot of solar and he has had so many issues with thermomax. Stagnation is the biggest issue. I've fitted about 10 differant makes of tubes and panels and you honestly can go wrong with a cheap Chinese kit

Stagnation is caused by sizing the system wrong.

If you are used to installing cheap Chinese systems then it's no wonder you are having problems, also you are not up to date with the Kingspan Thermomax heat pipe system it has a snap disc which stops the heat pipe sending heat to the manifold at 95c so no chance of stagnation even if you grossly over size the system.

I wonder why is China becoming the biggest export market for Thermomax?

 

[Gray0689]

Stagnation is caused by sizing the system wrong.

If you are used to installing cheap Chinese systems then it's no wonder you are having problems, also you are not up to date with the Kingspan Thermomax heat pipe system it has a snap disc which stops the heat pipe sending heat to the manifold at 95c so no chance of stagnation even if you grossly over size the system.

I wonder why is China becoming the biggest export market for Thermomax?

Because they don't fit the crap they make just sell it to some people lol

 

[eaton]

Im fully aware how to size systems I'm also fully aware of the thermomax kit after having to go back to others systems to try and stop stagnation, theses were specced by kingspan!! Wouldn't trust their spec as far as ill throw it. I've got a few suppliers who won't deal with kingspan as they've had a lot of issues, hence ill,stick with the cheap crap that does the same job for half the cost

 

[Gray0689]

And what was the problem with the thermomax ones you had to go back to
Be nice to know as I have never had any problems with any yet

 

[peteheat]

Im fully aware how to size systems I'm also fully aware of the thermomax kit after having to go back to others systems to try and stop stagnation, theses were specced by kingspan!! Wouldn't trust their spec as far as ill throw it. I've got a few suppliers who won't deal with kingspan as they've had a lot of issues, hence ill,stick with the cheap crap that does the same job for half the cost

We are referring to a company that manufactures four different types of vacuum tube it would be nice to know which ones you are referring to, in my experience they are too conservative in their specifications but that could be down to a different rep doing the surveys.

On the other side I have people who are very annoyed at Chinese systems that have 60 tubes serving a 300 litre cylinder and never see the temperature rise above 35c.

All Chinese systems are not that bad however the better quality systems tend to be priced very close to the Thermomax products.

I agree it would nice to see some stability in the Thermomax pricing considering I can buy direct from the factory but at times find my competitors retail prices cheaper than my factory prices.