System Connection Recommendations..

[newburyporter]

I had a Schuco Hot Water system installed in 2010. I used a 0% 7 year loan to get it installed...

There are 3 panels on the roof.

When installed the installer said the best way to install was as follows:
Panels feed a large storage tank. My guess 80 or 100 gallons. I can read nameplate if needed but I need to find. It is not on outside of tank...
I have an existing 80 gallon hot water heater that is heated off my oil boiler.
The incoming city water is now feed into the large storage tank which then feeds my hot water tank...

The Schuco system has a nice monitor.
The temp at the panels get up to low 200's F on sunny days.
The tank temperature will get to 140F and I think the pump then stops running.
Tank temp will drop back to the 80's over night. I have not watched REAL closely but i will begin to do so.
I am not real sure how quickly that "storage" tank gets cool again...
It is not up to 125F. I'll check in AM if still warm enough for showers...

There are only 3 of us in the house so we don't use a ton of water.

My thought is that the water from the storage tank is not really getting used that much, therefore not saving me much money...

I have been thinking that I'd do better to have some sort of switch connected to a valve that began to pull directly off the storage tank when that temperature was about 115 degrees or so. I'd need a mixer valve there to prevent scalding as well...

We could then do all laundry and dish washer running and warm water things mid day on sunny days.
Maybe even get our showers in direclty off the solar storage tank.

Any thoughts on this by some of you that are much more familiar that this than I am?

Any links to good material on the matter appreciated as well.

Thanks!

Brent Byers

[cherrick]

Drainback?

Is this correct? - your system is a passive solar drainback pre-heat system.

The water in your tank+roof panels is a closed system with a pump that pushes the water through the collectors and back into the Drainback tank. And the water on the hot side in your home circulates through a coil that sits in the drainback tank, drawing heat from the tank's fluid before that water travels into your hot water heater.

Is that correct?

If that's correct, then the water in the collectors+drainback tank are in fact getting used ... a lot ... to acquire heat that warms the water incoming into your hot water heater.

Or perhaps I don't understand your system.

[russ]

Sounds like your check valve is not functioning (or not installed). I have a similar Schucco system.

[newburyporter]

It is my understanding that the system has a closed glycol loop that runs between the panels on the roof and the large tank in my basement. That loops heats the water in that tank.

My incoming water from the town water supply is fed into that tank.

The heated water that comes out of the tank goes into my hot water heater which then feeds the hot water system in my house....

I will pull out the documents that came with the system and go trace the plumbing to verify that is in fact how it works. Back in touch.

Thx!

Brent

[LucMan]

It is my understanding that the system has a closed glycol loop that runs between the panels on the roof and the large tank in my basement. That loops heats the water in that tank.

My incoming water from the town water supply is fed into that tank.

The heated water that comes out of the tank goes into my hot water heater which then feeds the hot water system in my house....

I will pull out the documents that came with the system and go trace the plumbing to verify that is in fact how it works. Back in touch.

Thx!

Brent

That would be the correct way.

[Naptown]

/\ what he said