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Old 12-23-19, 08:29 PM   #7
Xringer
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rachael_B View Post
It is correct you would NOT have any problem with heater set up to at least 140F
With a solar hot water system, you can only control the maximum temp.
The minimum temperature is controlled by the weather and the sun.
If you have heavy snow covering your panels or it's heavily overcast all week.
Your storage tank is going to well below 140F.
When I used a solar hot water system, it was only used as a pre-heater.
It warmed up the water before it went to the real hot water heater (oil burner).

The last solar hot water system that I used had an air source heat pump as the main heat source.
It was solar PV assisted by 600 watts of solar panels connected to heating elements in the storage tank..
(600Wh = 2047 BTUh) It worked pretty well, until the tank started leaking.
It was 800 watts of PV, but a branch fell on the array and killed one of the panels.
One little crack in the glass was all it took. Hope it never hails here!


I'm back to burning oil for hot water again. No more solar and hopefully no more water leaks in the basement.

Cheers,
Rich
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Last edited by Xringer; 12-23-19 at 08:35 PM.. Reason: bad spelling etc.
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