BajaNomad

Sale on solar water heating kits

oladulce - 4-3-2009 at 12:14 AM

If you're in the market for a solar water heating system, these guys are having a sale on some of their models until April 15,09.

solar roofs

5% off and free ship & handling = about $500 in savings on the model we got. We went with the "Platinum 3- 30 sq ft for 3-4 people." No soldering and all parts are included in the kit which will make transport and installation in Baja easier. This model has 3 rooftop solar collector panels, circulating pump with it's own solar panel, and all the connectors and gadets needed.

Could have saved another 1% in CA sales tax if we'd jumped on it a day sooner. sigh...

Total price was $2400 or so. Not cheap, but I'm becoming numb to the costs involved with building a casa nowadays. Numbness is my new tactic to avoid depression when I think about how long it takes me to earn what we can spend in a second!

Hook - 4-3-2009 at 07:09 AM

Will you be using this for hot water in the home or are you feeding a spa or ???

BigWooo - 4-3-2009 at 07:38 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Hook
Will you be using this for hot water in the home or are you feeding a spa or ???


I wish we had a spa! No, this will be for the home. It uses a solar powered pump to recirculate water from the water heater through the solar panels to heat it. In theory, as long as it's at least partially sunny, we shouldn't need to burn propane to heat the water.

This system supports 2.5 gallons of hot water per square foot of panel. Our system is 36 square feet so we should be able to maintain 90 gallons of hot water.

Hook - 4-3-2009 at 08:41 AM

Thank you. I have almost no building type skills and am always looking for options as we begin our build (no, we still have not started).

Can you explain a little more about the interfacing of the propane water heater with this solar collector? Especially interested in how you thermostatically control the two means of heating the water and how you dump the solar collector water into the conventional water heater (assuming it IS a conventional water heater); how you allot space for it's introduction? Or, are you using some type of bypass valve that allows you to choose between either of the hot water sources?

BigWooo - 4-3-2009 at 01:50 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Hook
Can you explain a little more about the interfacing of the propane water heater with this solar collector? Especially interested in how you thermostatically control the two means of heating the water and how you dump the solar collector water into the conventional water heater (assuming it IS a conventional water heater); how you allot space for it's introduction? Or, are you using some type of bypass valve that allows you to choose between either of the hot water sources?


Two reasons we purchased this system is that it is designed to be installed by the user, and it gets good reviews on the tech-head websites. There is no sweating of pipes, everything is quick connect and included in the kit.

From what I understand this is how it works:

You do use a regular water heater. A valve that comes with the kit replaces the drain at the bottom of the water heater tank with a fitting. This fitting allows the solar collector feed and return line to share the same hole. Returning solar heated water goes through a center tube into the tank. The warmer solar heated water immediately rises to the top of the tank. At the same time cool water from the bottom of the tank is being pulled by the solar pump through the space around the hot return tube and sent to the solar collectors.

Water is pumped from the water heater through the solar collectors with a 12v pump run directly from a small solar panel. When the sun comes up hitting the solar electric panel and the solar water collectors, the pump starts running.

As long as the solar collectors keep the water temp above the your temp setting on the water heater, the flame never turns on. If you have a cloudy day, and the water temp drops below your setting on the water heater, the flame comes on and heats the water.

The pump controller has a high temp limit for the collectors. If you set it at 150 degrees, the pump will shut off when the water reaches 150 degrees in the tank, then turn back on again when the temp drops below that. The controller also has a device that compares the water temp at the collectors with water in the tank. If the collectors are cooler than the water in the tank, it won't allow the pump to come on.

For this system they recommend an 80 gallon tank, but say 50 will work. I haven't shopped for water heaters in Mexico yet, so I'm not sure what sizes are available. If it's not possible to find large ones, you can connect two smaller ones together. It shows how to hook them together in the instruction link below.

Here's a link to the installation instructions:

Instructions Link

Hook - 4-7-2009 at 06:11 AM

We have seen 50 gallon water heaters down here. IN fact, our local Agua Luz plumbing supply stores carry these new Rheems that are supposedly self-cleaning.