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Help Guide to Solar Water Heating |
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This Guide is designed to help the owner of, or a potential customer of a new solar water heating system better understand the function of the system and of the system components. Some of the words to describe solar water heating terms, components and functions on this web site may be new to you, please use the glossary as required. |
Understanding your 
Solar Water Heating System
What Size System do You Need?
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The Solar Water Heating Industry uses a figure of 50L per/day per/person as a guide when sizing Hot Water Cylinders and Solar Water Heating Systems. Some families will use use less and some will use more depending on individial habits. The Solar Water Heating Panels are sized relative to the size of the Hot Water Cylinder. The smaller your requirements are the less the entire system will cost you, due to the fact, larger capacity cylinders and therefore larger Solar Water Heating Panel's cost more than smaller capacity ones do. |
Components and Applications
Key1 Thermomax collector 2 Hot water pipework 3 Hot water cylinder
Applications4 Bath/shower/Tap 5 Underfloor heating/Space heating 6 Washing machine/Dishwasher 7 Swimming pool/Spa pool
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A Typical Solar Installation
| The diagram below shows a typical solar installation for domestic hot water with a twin coil hot water cylinder. This is a very common arrangement in Europe where the use of a boiler for central heating is very common. The top coil in a cylinder here in New Zealand would be an optional extra and would more likely here have a log fire with a wet back connected to it. Which is a great arrangement for winter boosting. |
Components
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a Solar collector on sloping roof kit. The connection kit connects the pipe work to the collector. b Cylinder with solar at the bottom and coil for wetback at the top. c Log fire or Boiler. d Hot water supply to house. e Cold water mains supply in. f Pump station used to circulate water from the collector to the heat exchanger within the cylinder. g Controller uses temperature sensors to monitor heat differences between the collector and the water in the tank and switches the pump on accordingly. h Expansion vessel to contain increased water volume in the system due to rise in temperature, and hence pressure of water. |
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Important User Information
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1 All Kingspansystems are designed to be fully automatic in operation, require no intervention by you, and are designed to provide many years of trouble free operation.
2 The Parameters within the controller are preset and are unable to be changed. The buttons on the controller are used for information only. They are there to indicate the temperature of the water in the cylinder, the temperature of the fluid in the solar panels and to indicate the pump running and speed. |
| The SC 200 controller provides everything to operate your solar thermal system safely over a long service life. It monitors and controls solar thermal systems with up to two differently oriented collector arrays and a maximum of two domestic hot water or buffer storage tanks. There are also several pool systems included. The large graphic display shows the animated control circuits, which allows you to view the operating status of each system. The clearly arranged display ensures easy operation using pictogram's. Pre-programed systems enable universal usage. The controller has five inputs for recording temperature values and two outputs for controlling pumps or switching relays and valves. |
Checking the Glycol level in the system
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The System is relatively maintenance free. The only real maintenance procedure is to check the the level of glycol (antifreeze) within the system. This can be checked by checking the pressure gauge (highlighted by red ring). If there is a fall in pressure to 0, the installer should be called to check the system to re-pressurise to the normal running pressure.
Please Note: The power to the solar system controller should be switched on at all times except for short periods when the system is being serviced by an engineer. It is recommended that the solar system is serviced every 2 years that peak performance is maintained. |
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