One problem I thought of if I ran pool water through the panels is freezing overnight in winter, or when the pump failed, I run a stainless steel heat exchanger for the house gas boiler to also heat the pool when the motorise valves are set, that has been in service for 25 years, I would need a second heat exchanger for the solar input, I have an underfloor pump room that has plenty of space for additions,but matchless faces the issue of the pools salt
which will wear the parts of the solar unit if direct
personally id create another tank and feed 1-2 solar units into it using glycol heat the water high as you need more flow with boiling the water and then take another feed from the pool feed and cool it down using the thermostatic bypass valve
solar glycol can be run alot hotter best heat is under 250f
basically your connecting 2 hot water cylinders together and running them in series one tank been the preheater the second tank heating the water up even more
the coil is the solar glycol and can be run alot hotter best heat is under 250f
or you make your own tank and coil system or use a vortex system
i cant suggest the heat exchanger as it may have issues with the salt yet again
thats why you use glycol or it back drains out of the panelsOne problem I thought of if I ran pool water through the panels is freezing overnight in winter, or when the pump failed, I run a stainless steel heat exchanger for the house gas boiler to also heat the pool when the motorise valves are set, that has been in service for 25 years, I would need a second heat exchanger for the solar input, I have an underfloor pump room that has plenty of space for additions,
I did a lot of research wrt energy use and storing heat before I got crippled in 1995 , as we'd purchased an old railway gate crossing house on a 30 foot high embankment that was to be our forever home .Music to my ears that. There's a lot of doubters where solar thermal is concerned. I've DIY'd my own small scale system and it was amazing to get that much free heat into the water.
I'd rather have excess heat to dump / store somewhere than not. If it gets hot enough to boil water then you could potentially drive a turbine generator and store in batteries.
The way energy is rising in cost the old, " Too long a pay back naysayers " may well be proved extremely wrong in just a few years. Even if it took 20 years such schemes if they last say 50 years or longer will mean 30 years of free heating because someone had the sense to invest in the future.
Theres 2 issues with that.
1, I need to live long enough.
2, Nothing like this going to last 30 or 50 years. It will require all sorts of maintenance in the intervening period. Even at DIY level. Thats all more cost.
There are no pockets in a shroud .. spend it whilst you can . Even in 10 yrs time it's likely to have paid for itself .Theres 2 issues with that.
1, I need to live long enough.
2, Nothing like this going to last 30 or 50 years. It will require all sorts of maintenance in the intervening period. Even at DIY level. Thats all more cost.
There are no pockets in a shroud .. spend it whilst you can . Even in 10 yrs time it's likely to have paid for itself .
The ground source heating system at Faculty of Law ( ?) Reading university 's Syston ( sp ) site was put in about 1964 it's still going 57 years later . When I last looked at it on line it about 9 yrs ago it was still going strong . Just tried to find it again but I got swamped with adverts for GSH & ASH
IIRC the system is nearly 200 mtrs of 18/18 stainless steel pipework in a 6 foot deep zig zag trench , it's had a couple of new pumps & other above surface things like the heat exchangers but the piping is all original .
What is it that makes ground source installations so expensive. On the face of it, its pretty simple. And probably the most reliable of the various options id think?
I wouldn't go expecting Chinese inverters or panels to last that long. In fact I think it would be very prudent to ultra insulate and not rely on the future availablity of PV kit and spares from China. Same goes for the raw materials used in EVs.
Imagine, several years down the line when lots of people are needing new battery packs and none are available. At least we'll be able to pile all the dead Tesla's up to slow the Russian tanks down!
Investment in passive technologies & home grown renewables is imho the best route.
Drilling and trenching, I pay a good rate and it's currently £41 per metre drilled and loop installed
A big job with 62 deep boreholes and artesian issues is projected to cost north of £1million just for drilling
I can dig trenches. Thats not rocket science.
So, with no limitations on land, and all labour my own, the next question is, what would be a budget cost for parts only for a 3 bed detached?
I've a half acre with the house slap bang in the middle. Always wondered if the back lawn would be big enough for a GSHP loop.
No, with boreholes yes but unless you live in a tiny, well insulated house you will not have the area for an array. It isn't just array area either, pressure drops are a huge factor with slinkies
I wouldn't worry drastically. There are varying quality Chinese brands, same with most products. A cheap(ish) Chinese inverter I've got has performed faultlessly for 5years and outperformed the Austrian Fronius here (though that's probably mostly due to panel angle). Anyway, that doesn't really mean anything but what is relevant is that replacement costs are dropping rapidly. So even if the lifespan is halved, a Chinese inverter was probably half the cost of the European one in the first place and its replacement will be cheaper too. Fitting costs make it sensible to spend more on better quality in the first instance but if you're going DIY, it's not easy to rule out some of the reasonable Chinese stuff, especially if it's just because it's Chinese.Indeed. You see people talking of payback of 7-10 years and the like. Thats great if nothing ever goes wrong. Thats not realistic. You have a bunch of cheap chinese crap, and a load of electronics which will inevitably fall over at some point and be unsupported.
If i do some DIY system, it really needs to have no electronics. This im sue wll prove to be most systems undoing longer term.
The infrastructure for ground source can be staggering. I considered a two property project with a large pond fed by a decent flowrate stream. Even though everything added up in terms of energy requirements and it was all pretty close to each other, the rough cost we worked out for installation was staggering and, even with the commercial RHI, the payback wasn't swift. Things might be different if heating oil stays at £1 a go but even then, my gut feeling is that spending the money on EWI, MVHR and a few logs is better value long term.No, with boreholes yes but unless you live in a tiny, well insulated house you will not have the area for an array. It isn't just array area either, pressure drops are a huge factor with slinkies
Things might be different if heating oil stays at £1
I wouldn't worry drastically. There are varying quality Chinese brands, same with most products. A cheap(ish) Chinese inverter I've got has performed faultlessly for 5years and outperformed the Austrian Fronius here (though that's probably mostly due to panel angle). Anyway, that doesn't really mean anything but what is relevant is that replacement costs are dropping rapidly. So even if the lifespan is halved, a Chinese inverter was probably half the cost of the European one in the first place and its replacement will be cheaper too. Fitting costs make it sensible to spend more on better quality in the first instance but if you're going DIY, it's not easy to rule out some of the reasonable Chinese stuff, especially if it's just because it's Chinese.