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Old 02-05-12, 08:49 AM   #1
The master plan
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Default Vertical mount solar collectors

Does anyone have or heard of these? SunMaxx ThermoPower Direct Flow Evacuated Tube Solar Collectors | Solar Thermal Manufacturer & Distributer They are a vertical mountable Evacuated Tube Solar Collector. They make a 20 tube 22.8 thousand BTU or a 30 tube 22.7 thousand BTU model.
Of course they don't have a price on the website, I hate that. I'm interested because of the higher temps available and the cold weather/overcast day production ability. I also have to have the ability for vertical mounting because I want them on the side of my building.

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Old 02-05-12, 09:19 AM   #2
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Unless you're in a horribly cold climate (colder than northern US) the flat plate collector really is a more efficient and more cost effective way to go.

Here is a chart from BuildItSolar that shows the general efficiency of flat plate vs evacuated tube type collectors. As you can see, the flat plate collectors are more efficient until about a 100 degree F temperature differential between the water and the ambient temperature.




Also, tilting collectors is always going to be advantageous as it is just more efficient. You can vertical mount any collector, it just won't collect as much energy.
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Old 02-05-12, 09:41 AM   #3
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In most parts of North America vertical mounting will be pretty useless in the summer.
But, that wouldn't be important if the system was for space heating..

If I was doing space heating only, I would likely try for 25 to 30 degrees..

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Old 02-09-12, 11:01 PM   #4
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I don't think my post count is high enough to enable me to provide links yet. If you look about you can find websites which give you optimum solar angles for your location and the dates during the year when you should change the angle of your collectors. Do it twice a year or 4 times and your optimization increases.
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Old 02-10-12, 11:24 AM   #5
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Hi,
If the collectors have been certified by the SRCC, you can go to the SRCC report for the collector and see the actual performance. Evac tubes vary widely in performance.

The SRCC report also gives the two efficiency curve parameters -- the intercept and the slope. You can copy those down and then use this calculator to compare the output of those collectors to other flat plate and evac tube collectors using the calculator: Solar Collector Efficiency Calculator
Just enter the weather and sun condition you want to look at and it will give you the heat out and efficiency.

Be sure to be realistic about the weather you put in. For temperatures put in realistic average daily high temps (since thats when you collect). Use Weather Spark of something like that to get realistic weather. Most people think its a lot colder where they are than it really is

I live in SW Montana -- a cold place, and we only have one month where the average daily high is below 32F.

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Old 02-13-12, 02:49 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GaryGary View Post
Hi,
If the collectors have been certified by the SRCC, you can go to the SRCC report for the collector and see the actual performance. Evac tubes vary widely in performance.

The SRCC report also gives the two efficiency curve parameters -- the intercept and the slope. You can copy those down and then use this calculator to compare the output of those collectors to other flat plate and evac tube collectors using the calculator: Solar Collector Efficiency Calculator
Just enter the weather and sun condition you want to look at and it will give you the heat out and efficiency.

Be sure to be realistic about the weather you put in. For temperatures put in realistic average daily high temps (since thats when you collect). Use Weather Spark of something like that to get realistic weather. Most people think its a lot colder where they are than it really is

I live in SW Montana -- a cold place, and we only have one month where the average daily high is below 32F.

Gary

This is the SRCC report for one of the SunMaxx Evac tube models:
https://securedb.fsec.ucf.edu/srcc/c...cc_id=2006011A
Did not see the exact model that your link mentioned.

The intercept value for the efficiency curve on this model is 0.376. This means that the collectors highest efficiency under the best sun and weather conditions is 37.6% -- cold temps and part sun make it go down from that, but not very fast as the slope of the efficiency curve is 0.23, which is good.
Still, 37.6% as a maximum does not sound that good to me?
The intercept value for the Heliodyne Gobe (a good flat plate) is 0.752.

This is the link to all of the SRCC certified collectors: https://securedb.fsec.ucf.edu/srcc/c...submit=Summary

If you just select "SunMaxx Solar" as the Company, you get all of their collectors.
The reports on each collector also give expected heat output for sunny, part sunny, and cloudy days and for services A through E where service C or D is usually used for domestic water heating. So, you can compare the output for the SunMaxx to flat plates and other evacs. If you want to compare two collectors of different sizes, you need to divide the heat output values by the area of the collector to get apples to apples.


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Old 02-14-12, 07:23 AM   #7
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GaryGary, thanks for sharing that info. I'm sure I'll be looking into it soon enough.

Mark

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