Solar hot water heater questions.

nobody928
nobody928 Solar Expert Posts: 62 ✭✭✭✭
in Solar Beginners Corner #1
What is the differance between active and passive solar hot water heater systems? If living off grid what would be the best set up for hot water. What would somebody expect to pay for a solar hot water system? Is there any preffered brands/manufacurers?

Thanks in advance.
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  • Cariboocoot
    Cariboocoot Banned Posts: 17,615 ✭✭✭
    #2
    Re: Solar hot water heater questions.

    Active solar water heating would involve some application of external energy to facilitate the heating.
    Passive would mean the heating occurs on its own.
    Think "pump" vs. "gravity".

    What is the best depends very much on your location and usage.

    If you want to find out a lot about solar hot water stuff you can't beat Build It Solar: http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/WaterHeating/water_heating.htm

    This is an area where DIY is definitely viable. :D
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  • Organic Farmer
    Organic Farmer Solar Expert Posts: 128 ✭✭
    #3
    Re: Solar hot water heater questions.

    We are planning a DIY setup here.

    I have priced pre-made systems for the past 10 years, and I have attended a few workshops on them. From the most expensive to the least expensive systems the difference in performance efficiency is minimal.

    In my area, there solar-thermal water heaters that are used stand-alone, for domestic hot-water.

    There solar-thermal water heaters used as pre-heaters for conventional water-heaters, for domestic hot-water, as well as for radiant heating.

    And there are systems using them purely for radiant heating their homes.



    Our home is currently heated by a woodstove that heats water for our thermal-bank and radiant flooring. We plan to augment that with solar-thermal panels. In our setup the valve manifold will select whether it is pre-heating the water going into our woodstove; or whether it goes directly into the thermal-bank and radiant floor in a stand-alone mode.
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