Considering solar water heat but have concerns.

oil pan 4 · January 2018

I am considering solar water heating and got to looking at some of the gear and I noticed something.
The typical setup appears to use exposed glass tubes.
Problem with that is pretty consistently we have had golf ball size hail storms just about every year to every other year and baseball size hail every 5 to 8 years.
Can these things take hail stones or do I need to devise a way to shield it with chicken wire or something?
Or are these things make from tempered 1/4 inch thick glass and I just don' know it?

westbranch · January 2018

A Lexan shield/ cover?
Screen door glass is tempered.... I used it for my sundeck railing, to not have solid wood pales ~ 7 feet x 3 feet IIRC

Estragon · January 2018

I plan to use black poly water pipe. Not quite as efficient as evacuated glass tube, but hail won't hurt it, and if some water is left in low points over winter, it won't burst. It's also a lot cheaper.

solar_dave · January 2018

I have a 4X10 collector that is a copper tube flat panel with a lexan cover. I was hit with some golf ball size hail with no visible ill effects. I would say it provides 95%+ of our hot water needs for 10 month out of the year.

I did look at evacuated tube collectors and they are more efficient but not required in my environment, hell its 84F right now. I do believe the reputable manufacturers will have hail test results for their equipment.

Personally I think solar hot water is a long payoff vs natgas. For me it was a greenie wife!

peakbaggger · January 2018

Wow, this is bit of blast from the past. Standard solar hot water collectors for domestic hot water be they flat plate or evac tubes are pretty well dead technology compared to just buying a couple of more PV panels and a heat pump hot water heater. The problem with conventional collectors is they overproduce when you dont need them and underproduce when you do. The upfront cost if far better spent on the HPHWH and the extras PV's. BTW I have flat plates run by a DC pump fed from a PV paneland it just keeps running. I think I lost one bladder tank during its life and had one check valve self destruct.

I dont see a lot of new evac tubes systems out there, the warranty claims that busted companies meant that many Evac arrays have many dead tubes and no one to honor the warranty.

oil pan 4 · January 2018

I have a heat pump water heater already.

Considering solar water heat but have concerns.

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