Solar Water Heating

I have always had an interest in trying to reduce my energy bills. I just hate paying these large energy suppliers who can basically charge what they like and I have no choice but to pay. Every cent I don't have to pay them is a bonus. The problem is that there is always an initial cost to having some sort of alternative system, and at any given moment, it is hard to justify the expense. It never seems to be the right time. It is only a few years later after a series of power price increases we think, "if only I had an alternative". I don't believe it is really practical to generate all your own power if you are already connected to the national grid, unless you want a huge change in lifestyle. What you can do though, is reduce your power demand.

Insulating your home (conserving energy) and solar heating for your hot water are some of the most practical things you can do. Up until now solar water heating has been very expensive, in excess of $6000 for the average household, which had made it hard to justify. We have come across a supplier who has far more realistic prices for solar heating components. Having installed a solar collector on our own home, we are convinced of their reliability and quality.

We are offering solar water heating kitsets. First you should get a building consent from your local council as your insurance may be affected if you don't. Check with your council first, but if you are a practical person who knows how to use a few tools then you should be able to save yourself a small fortune by doing most of the installation yourself. Plumbers are charging upwards of $60/hour so it does not take long for the costs to mount up. You can mount the solar collectors on your roof and run all the pipe-work. The final connection to the hot water cylinder must be done by a registered plumber (check with your council). Even if you employ a plumber to do the whole job, you will probably find there is still a substantial saving.

A few things to consider:

1. Electricity will continue to increase in price and as natural gas runs down (40% of New Zealand's electricity is generated by using natural gas) the price may escalate even faster. Who do you think is going to pay for the transmission lines up through the Waikato for instance?
2. Copper, one of the main components of any hot water system, is rising rapidly in price. Copper has increased in price by over 30% in only a few months. This means copper pipe, solar collectors and wiring will also rise in price.

Now is the time to act. There is no point looking back in ten years' time wishing you had done something years ago.

Our Products

Solar hot water heating collectors / panels - the heart of the system.
It is most important that the solar collectors (panels) are well designed. After all, this is where all the heating happens. Our solar panels have evolved from over 20 years of panel manufacturing experience and are THE cost-effective solution to solar hot water heating, providing realistic and effective financial returns.

We offer solar panels which consist of copper riser tubes attached to copper absorber plates, a well proven concept.

The solar collectors have been successfully tested to the European standard ISO9806.
The diagram above shows the difference between the economy panel (normal glass) and the high performance panel (low iron glass)

Collector design - the heart of the system

Our collectors offer you industry-leading technology coupled with superior design to give you the piece of mind that comes from a product backed by over 25 years' experience and the manufacture of over 200,000 m2 of collectors per year. So reliable, they are warranted for 5 years.

Our collectors are suitable for low or high pressure systems and offer the following features:

Remember that all collectors probably look much the same "out of the box". It is how they are constructed inside and how they perform that counts.

Solar Controllers - what do they do?

The solar controller is a device that compares the temperature in your hot water cylinder to that in your solar panel. When the temperature in the panel exceeds the temperature of the water in your hot water cylinder, the unit turns on a small circulating pump that moves the water from your solar panel into the top of your hot water tank. Cooler water is drawn from the bottom of the hot water cylinder into the panel until the temperature in the panel is nearly the same as in the tank. At this point the pump turns off. The sun heats the water in the panel and the whole process is repeated. Because the water is pumped your tank can be lower than your panels. If the temperature in the panel should go very low (a frosty night) the unit turns on the pump for a brief burst to prevent the water in the tubes from freezing.

Two solar controller models to choose from:

Bronze circulating pump (6m head)

All rotating parts of the pump are surrounded by flowing water, including the motor rotor. These pumps are designed to pump hot water from minus 10 to 110 degrees celcius. Power consumption at maximum speed is a minimal 100 watts. If it were to run continuously for 10 hours it would cost 25 cents for the electricity. Since the pump only comes on for a short time when there is heat to be transferred, I doubt it would even cost 25 cents a week to run.
$343.75.00 inc GST plus $12 freight NI, $15 SI

How do you connect the unit?

Below is a diagram of how to fit our solar system to an existing hot water cylinder

Retrofit kitsets using existing hot water cylinder

The following items are in the kitset:

Kitset does not include screws for securing to and weather proofing for roof, frost protection or electrical supplies.

Kit numbers are coded by the number of people in the household. If there is only one person in the household kit 2 is for you.

Please note.
You can use a low-pressure hot water cylinder instead of a mains pressure unit. It must be vented to the open air so excess water or steam can escape. A lot of older systems are like this using a pressure reducing valve (NEFA/Ajax) on the water inlet side.

If your existing cylinder is not the same as the sizes listed, close enough will do. The reason for stating a size is that there is adequate volume for storage of the hot water and to prevent too small a cylinder being used resulting in boil-over on hot days.

Individual collector pricing

2.3m2 High performance solar collector, copper risers, selective coating on copper absorber, aluminium enclosure and toughened low iron glass
Dimensions 2.3m2, 1.2 wide x 1.9 high x 100mm thick
Price $1150.00 inc GST Freight NI $160.00 SI $320.00

2.8m2 High performance solar collector, copper risers, selective coating on copper absorber, aluminium enclosure and toughened low iron glass
Dimensions 2.8m2, 1.2 wide x 2.3 high x 100mm thick
Price $1275.00 inc GST Freight NI $160.00 SI $320.00

Frequently asked questions

1/ Why are your solar water heaters so cheap? Everyone else is charging an arm and a leg.
Most other solar water systems are for a complete installation, labour included. You can save a bundle if you are a bit handy and do some of the work yourself. We also don't have a very big profit margin on our systems because we think everyone should be saving energy. We are trying to do our bit for the planet.

2/ Because they are cheap are they of inferior quality?
Absolutely not. Our panels are made in Italy (not China) by a manufacturer with 20 years experience.

3/ I have heard this type of panel is old technology and not as good as the new vacuum "tube type" coming out of China?
The idea is an old one, tried and proven, but the technology is not. New more efficient insulating materials are used in the collector with low iron glass and better coatings on the collectors improve on an old idea.

4/ Vacuum tube type solar collectors are better?
Vacuum tube type collectors are better insulated and should therefore operate better on a cold sunny day. This may be true. However you need a lot of tubes. While the tubes look relatively large, the solar collector part inside the tube is only approx 30-40mm wide. It is the amount of area exposed to the sun that really counts, as there is only a certain amount of energy from the sun hitting the planet per square metre. If you were to add all these 40mm strips together you would find the surface area (remember this is what really counts), is relatively small. You need a lot of tubes, and they need to occupy a much larger roof area than our flat panels, if they are to collect as much energy. For example. If the tubes are 1.2 metres long and they have a collector strip 40mm wide in each tube, the surface area is: 0.04m x 1.2 = 0.048m2. To equal one of our 2.8 m2 collectors you need 2.8 divided by 0.048 = 58 tubes. Even if they were 25% more efficient, which they are not, you still need approx 43 tubes to one of our panels. How do we know this? We have tested both.

5/ Will the collectors work even on a cloudy day? Other people selling systems say theirs will?
They sort of do but they are best in direct sun. It is fairly obvious really, if you put your hand out on a cloudy day and you don't feel any heat, why would a solar collector heat up? There will be some heating depending on the density of the cloud cover, but you will need to heat your water with an alternative such as electricity or a wetback, unless you want a cold shower.