This discussion has been locked.
You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a question you can start a new discussion

Solar Hot Water System

With hot water solar heating panels that heat a copper cylinder with no pump, to an internal heating coil, does the "flow" from the solar heating panel run to the top of the coil in the copper cylinder or the bottom, bearing in mind that with a gravity system hot water rises?

Z.

Parents
  • Does anyone actually have a pumpless solar installation ? you need a hot fire to get much sense out of a gravity fired heating system even of the back boiler kind, and as already noted, the heat source has to be the lowest point, as water expands when heated. The pump power can always be photo-voltaic if mains is not on-site.

    Mike

  • People in the 50s, 60s and 70s, had back boilers that were totally gravity run with no pumps. I will not be heating the whole house, just producing limited hot water for washing and shaving.

    www.ebay.co.uk/.../254011629563

    Z.

  • I grew up in a house with a back boiler.  The gas fire/boiler was on the ground floor, and the tank was on the first floor.  So hot water from the boiler naturally rose into the tank by convection.

    A pump was only needed for the central heating, which took its heat from the hot water tank.

    That's not going to work if the panels are on the roof, but could if they are at ground level.

Reply
  • I grew up in a house with a back boiler.  The gas fire/boiler was on the ground floor, and the tank was on the first floor.  So hot water from the boiler naturally rose into the tank by convection.

    A pump was only needed for the central heating, which took its heat from the hot water tank.

    That's not going to work if the panels are on the roof, but could if they are at ground level.

Children
No Data