fixmyplumbing

How Solar Thermal Heats Your Water Efficiently

What is solar thermal hot water.

Solar thermal hot water is a system that uses heat from the sun to heat the hot water storage cylinder. The heat from the sun is free, produces no greenhouse gases and increases energy efficiency.

How does solar thermal heat my water?

Solar thermal hot water works by collecting the heat from the sun and transferring it to your hot water cylinder.

How does my solar thermal know when to work?

Solar thermal hot water has a controller that senses the temperature of the panel and hot water cylinder.

When the cylinder is colder than the solar panel (collector) the controller activates the pump to circulate the fluid.

The fluid collects the heat from the panel and uses the heat in your hot water cylinder.

This is the process the controller uses:

The temperature sensor in the tank tells the control panel hot water is required.
The controller compares the temperature in the panel to the temperature in the hot water storage tank. If the panel is not hot enough they system goes into standby. If there is enough temperature difference the controller tells the pump to start. This circulates solar fluid around the pipework to the panel.
Solar fluid slowly circulates through the panel back to the hot water tank in a constant loop. The solar fluid heats up in the panel and transfers that heat to the hot water cylinder.
When the hot water cylinder reaches the set temperature the controller switches off. The pumping station stops circulating the fluid and waits for a new demand.

If you found this confusing:

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