Solar thermal installation

June 13, 2004: One year of experience with the solart hermal installation

The solar thermal unit has performed exactly as expected. The graph on the left shows the accumulated hot water production of the last 12 months.

A total of 2.5 megajoules of hot water has been produced (one needs 125 cubic meters of natural gas to produce this amount of hot water compared with the old fossil water heater). Expressed in kilowatt-hours, the production has been 271 units.

 

 

When I take also into account the consumption of the tiny little ignition flame with which the old water heater was equipped (say: handicapped), total savings amount to approximately 25 cubic meters of natural gas per month. On a yearly basis this saves 300 cubic meters.

The slope of the graph is in 2004 somewhat steeper than that in 2003. This is caused by the presentation: fall of 2003 with diminishing performance versus spring of 2004 with increasing performance.

2003: Considering a solar thermal installation

The central heating system and the water heating system in my home needed to be replaced. I decided to replace all the old stuff in one big bang with an advanced combined solar thermal/central heating unit. This page shows what's been tinkered and done. My home is now as much solar as I can afford!
June 4, 2003 Installation:

The system was engineered and installed by the specialized company Walraven of Bodegraven, Holland. They brought special equipment to transport the roof tiles down, haul the solar collector, the PV panels and the mounting material up and move personnel up and down. Wonderful, such an external solution. It saved a lot of dirt and dust and tidying up afterwards in my home's interior.

The extra Kyocera KC-120 PV panels
montage of the collector and the PV panels
this is what folk passing by saw of the operation
   

 

left: under the roof, on the attic. On the left the hot water storage container, in the center the central heating unit (burns natural gas), on the right (red) the expansion vessel. The little grey device with the display is the Gj meter. Gauging is knowing, you know!
 
From now on the roof