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Solar heater inline w/ electric aux heater -- will this work?
I'd like to place one or more Gull Sol-R-Flow coil collector inline before my electric aux heater as a kind of a preheater. It may or may not supply all of our hot water, but any offset helps. I've been looking at different schematics and I've yet to see anyone do this. Well, some of the batch heaters have a somewhat similar schematic. It uses street water pressure to pump up to the roof, approximately 14 feet from the ground (average). I have pictured here just one Gull Sol-R-Flow heater but could inline more as necessary. I live in Jacksonville, FL where we get on average 15 freeze days per year. Not pictured are cutoff valves, drain valves, vacuum breakers, air vents, freeze protection, etc.
Can you help me understand if it wouldn't work?
My concerns:
* Scaling over time with this open loop -- though I'm sure that's been covered elsewhere. How would I pump muratic acid? Unfortunately there are no docs for this on the company website. I'm sure I could ask though.
* Would it even be worth it? Would water would push through so quickly, would it get hot at all? This is likely why direct systems often use a pump to circulate. That's why perhaps I'd be adding more coils. It may be up to Gull to answer this one as well.
* Would it get too hot? This would be where the tempering valve would help, but would the hot water stagnate in the coils and pipes, turning to steam, etc.?
* Freezes are a concern of course, but with only about 15 freeze days per year I could probably keep tabs on it. This is our main residence and we don't vacation much, but if I did I could drain it. Gull claims their coil heaters can withstand freezing and also I could heavily insulate any exposed pipe. Interestingly the pipe under the house is almost completely exposed today and in 12 years we haven't yet had any issues. So probably it doesn't get cold enough here. I've seen single digit overnights but those are very rare. Typically we'll get a few 20 degree nights during every winter.
* What else am I not thinking of?
Can you help me understand if it wouldn't work?
My concerns:
* Scaling over time with this open loop -- though I'm sure that's been covered elsewhere. How would I pump muratic acid? Unfortunately there are no docs for this on the company website. I'm sure I could ask though.
* Would it even be worth it? Would water would push through so quickly, would it get hot at all? This is likely why direct systems often use a pump to circulate. That's why perhaps I'd be adding more coils. It may be up to Gull to answer this one as well.
* Would it get too hot? This would be where the tempering valve would help, but would the hot water stagnate in the coils and pipes, turning to steam, etc.?
* Freezes are a concern of course, but with only about 15 freeze days per year I could probably keep tabs on it. This is our main residence and we don't vacation much, but if I did I could drain it. Gull claims their coil heaters can withstand freezing and also I could heavily insulate any exposed pipe. Interestingly the pipe under the house is almost completely exposed today and in 12 years we haven't yet had any issues. So probably it doesn't get cold enough here. I've seen single digit overnights but those are very rare. Typically we'll get a few 20 degree nights during every winter.
* What else am I not thinking of?
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