Systems

The Solar Heated Water System

There are 3 main components which make up our system:

1. The Solar Collector (also known as a solar panel)

The Solar collector harnesses the sun’s energy to heat your water. Around 1000 KWH per square meter falls on your roof each year. You can harvest this free energy using a solar collector to heat your water for various applications from domestic heated water systems to swimming pool systems.

Northburn Solar are accredited installers and only install collectors which meet the UK BS EN12975 standard for reliability & performance.

There is no one size fits all with regard to renewable technology. We offer a range of different manufacturers systems and components so that we can tailor make a system that is right for you!

Two of the most popular solar collectors are below:

The solar cylinder provides storage for the water heated by the Solar Collector and back-up heat provided by your boiler. There are various cylinder solutions from twin coil tanks to thermal stores.

The most common storage method is the twin coil cylinder:

Fluid from the solar collector flows through the lower coil. The upper coil is connected to your boiler. The Boiler circuit will top up the water on low solar days. Even on low solar days you are saving energy as the solar collector is pre heating your water.

The hot water cylinder is one of the most important parts of the system. These specially designed Solar cylinders are taller and thinner than a standard hot water cylinder. The cylinder is double insulated with 50mm of insulation foam to keep your water warmer for longer. This tank alone would improve the efficiency of most standard hot water systems.

2. The solar hot water cylinder.

How does the system work?

Solar heated systems collect the sun’s energy through a suitably positioned solar collector. The Solar collector heats a liquid contained within the systems pipe work. This liquid is circulated through the coil located at the base of a solar hot water cylinder. The solar controller monitors the difference in temperature between the solar collector and the base of the hot water cylinder. When within a predefined range the solar controller switches on the circulation pump. The pump transfers the heated fluid from the collector to the coil in the hot water cylinder. This fluid transfer produces your free water.

The Solar controller is the brains of the solar system. It switches on the circulation pump to harvest the sun's energy at every opportunity.

The Solar controller monitors the following data:

• Manifold temperature on the Solar collector
• The temperature at the top of the solar cylinder
• The temperature at the bottom of the solar cylinder
• The solar hour’s counter, the total time the system spends adding free heat.

The Solar Control unit is specifically designed for the running of a solar collector system. It takes control of all of the pumping and temperature settings that are necessary. These temperatures are displayed for you to see and the controller shows when the system is harnessing natural energy.