Solar Hot Water controller

Re: Solar Hot Water controller

I have built a flat plate collector. It is quite simple, and it works quite well on the Wet Coast. (Not our Northern Ontario house!) I too have used Goldlines in the past, but I think they are out of business.

I installed a Azel Technology controller http://www.azeltec.com/

It has a digital display that shows collector temp, tank outlet temp. You can set the differential T from 1C to as high as you wish. It also has a bunch of cool features including adjustable hysterisis. But the best function is the freeze protection. You can set it for what ever temp (low temp) you wish, say 35f and when the probe says 35f, it will turn on to keep the collector from freezing. This makes using a simple, potable water system simple even in climates that have moderate freeze, say 10f overnight. The last collector I built is very simple. It is nothing but ~250' of 1/2 copper pipe in a continuous loop, sitting in a wooden box, with a piece of 1/8 plate steel, on top of 2" of thermax insulation. The whole thing is covered with 2 28x76" patio door glass panes. The controller triggers a small 1gpm grunfos pump, circulating into a salvaged electric water heater, that acts as a preheat for a demand gas water heater. The whole thing cost ~$400 and delivers about 8000 btu on a sunny day in mid winter, (about 40% of 2 peoples use). In the summer I expect it to put out ~40,000 btus,, way more than we would need. ( I also wired the water heater (preheat tank) with a piece of wire that runs outside the house, so that when the owner runs the emergency generator for an exercise cycle, they can load up the genny, and heat water as a bonus!

There is a 12vdc version from a different manufacturer: http://www.arttecsolar.com/

I've never used this one.

Tony

PS In FL you could heat all the water you could ever need,, real easy, real cheap!

Re: Solar Hot Water controller

Rob,

Dig a little deeper on the Azel site. I noticed (but didn't read) a bunch of info on zone controllers and pc boards for networking controllers together for hydonic systems. Maybe in that maze there is a network interface that can be adapted.

As for goldline. I still see them for sale, but I was searching for some information on the thermisters and ran into a dead end. Perhaps I didn't look far enough. Someone told me they were out of business.

Tony