I just purchased a home that has a solar water heating system in it. I'm totally new to the system and want to learn, and unfortunately, fix it. A month ago it seemed to be working great.. I was getting water heated to about 180 I believe.. then I started hearing a click, click sound.. over and over from the differential controller (GL-30)... after a day or two of that I stopped hearing the clicking and assumed all was fine.. until I noticed my water was now at line temperature all the time. I also noticed that even when the GL-30 said my pump was on, it wasn't... first thought was that pump died.. but after a bit of work I determined the relay was dead (I hotwired the pump directly to power and heard/felt it come on).. SOOO.. I replaced the GL-30.. and, happily, when I saw the controller turn on the pump, the pump turned on! Sadly, after about an hour I noticed the temperature was not changing.. the pump was still running and very hot, but the water was not circulating from the tank up to the panels and back down..
I have a Solaraide system (so says the sticker) with a grundfos 15-18up pump on it... I believe the system is a closed loop system using some sort of glycol or some such fluid? I drained a bit out of one of the faucets and, while clear and water like, it had a sweet smell to it..
My question.. finally.. is this... Does this sound like a system that needs to be pressurized? The temperature gauge also shows a pressure reading (manual dial type gauge), so I assume so... I'm wondering if somehow the system lost necessary pressure to allow the fluid to move through it in a circuit? I have NO idea if this is how this works... if it is, and pressure is needed and I somehow lost that.. or that the pump needs to be primed or some such thing.. I can't figure out what I can do about it? Do I need to bite the bullet and pay somebody to come check it out, or is there something I might be able to do myself.
Any advice or ideas would be GREATLY appreciated!!!
So wanting to let the sun do the work instead of Southern California Edison...
Thanks in advance!!!
I have a Solaraide system (so says the sticker) with a grundfos 15-18up pump on it... I believe the system is a closed loop system using some sort of glycol or some such fluid? I drained a bit out of one of the faucets and, while clear and water like, it had a sweet smell to it..
My question.. finally.. is this... Does this sound like a system that needs to be pressurized? The temperature gauge also shows a pressure reading (manual dial type gauge), so I assume so... I'm wondering if somehow the system lost necessary pressure to allow the fluid to move through it in a circuit? I have NO idea if this is how this works... if it is, and pressure is needed and I somehow lost that.. or that the pump needs to be primed or some such thing.. I can't figure out what I can do about it? Do I need to bite the bullet and pay somebody to come check it out, or is there something I might be able to do myself.
Any advice or ideas would be GREATLY appreciated!!!
So wanting to let the sun do the work instead of Southern California Edison...
Thanks in advance!!!
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