Solar water heater installer we recommend
02-19-2018, 04:54 PM, (This post was last modified: 02-19-2018, 04:56 PM by louisarogers.)
#1
Solar water heater installer we recommend
We just had a gravity-fed solar water heater installed on our roof, and want to put in a plug for our installer: Jorge Hernandez 473 73 91 187. He did a great job quickly and expertly. Highly recommended.
02-19-2018, 09:09 PM, (This post was last modified: 02-19-2018, 09:12 PM by DonJuane.)
#2
RE: Solar water heater installer we recommend
Have you used it much? I was just curious if you have to adjust the time of day for your shower or anything or if it seems to be warm all the time. Also do you know how he plumbed it in, e.g. does the solar go into a conventional water heater (and what kind is it the water heater, iif you have one) and how's the overall performance? And outside of the installer, how do you like it?
02-20-2018, 04:48 PM,
#3
RE: Solar water heater installer we recommend
I had solar hot water installed by the same guy at the beginning of December.
With two exceptions, the water has been good and hot every morning. There were two days when the previous day was entirely overcast. The water wasn't warm, but not cold enough to justify re-activating the butane water heater. If there was two overcast days in a row, I would have to go the "re-activate" route.
The solar hot water heater has its own tank. The setup includes a couple of valves, so if you close one, and open the other (and light the pilot light), you're back to butane.
I'm very happy with it. One fringe benefit is, up until this installation, I was doing my laundry in cold water, the same as everyone else does. Now that I have hot water at no additional cost, I can do laundry in warm water.
02-20-2018, 05:39 PM,
#4
RE: Solar water heater installer we recommend
So the way they install these here is installing a valve where you are working either/or with the solar unit vs. the regular tank water heater and there is no series connection where the solar simply preheats the source input of the gas heated water tank, which means it is a self sustaining unit on its on and the gas never has to be lit unless you go for a few days with no sun and then manually trip the valve over to the old plumbing configuration?

I haven't looked at solar water heat in years but have for a long time been curious about all these stainless tanks with the side glass tubes that I see everywhere here and one doesn't see in the US.

A couple of years ago I looked at Don Pedro hardware in San Miguel dA and they offered the old style that used to also be of a style originally published as a do it yourself kind of kit in Popular Science from many years ago, were a glass covered a square of a corrugated piece of black metal which blanketed the water, the glass held the heat in and the metal heated the water. Now I see about all they sell is the stainless tub with glass arm models. I also see Rick over at Casa Z has probably some very old versions of the flat panel design to heat his pool setup but I am sure his has been installed long before I arrived to comment on them.

Now I am guessing these new tank with glass arm designs must be more efficient? With that I am guessing that the new style has a way to capture and retain the hot water in the attached tank, where the old school could only heat water as if flowed by, thus only providing "assisted" water heating to a regular gas tank setup. Again - just guessing.

Now if all this speculation is true, it seems that putting one of these new style tank and glass arm solar heaters as the source for a tankless water heater might be the ultimate lazy man's and cheapskate's answer to never having to do anything and always having very hot water at the least cost. Still I would bet also that the tankless is really not equipped to handle the input being pre-heated to a "near perfect" level and that setting it up this way might play havoc with the thermostat and/or to cause the fuel to constantly jettison off and on, perhaps using up even more gas than if the solar didn't exist. Regardless this tankless/solar concept seems quite silly for someone on a limited budget like a certain someone I know every well. My mind is always just curious how something does or could work with a little tweaking which is probably the only point of my continued ramblings.


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