Surface Power launch the world’s first 20 year solar thermal “performance” warranty. This is the first performance warranty of any solar thermal system and at 20 years is an outstanding statement of engineering quality. (details below) 

(NOTE; the word “performance” in this warranty, what’s the point in having a 20 year warranty on a solar thermal collector if it does not also encompass performance similar to Solar PV)

• Approved and Trained Installer – 20 years warranty
• Other Installation – 5 year warranty

WHY?

 The externals

 1)      The SP501 solar thermal collector is made from aluminium. Aluminium is an element [Al] in the periodic table, therefore does not degrade. That’s why the world’s most expensive products such as world famous super cars are made from it. Aluminium is expensive so you know that you are getting quality products when you buy products manufactured with aluminium.

 2)      The outside coating of the aluminium is electrochemically coated. This gives it the very black look. This places a special film of aluminium oxide called (DZ90 hard coat – developed by Surface Power) on the outside which forms an integral part of the aluminium itself. DZ90 hard coat is the second hardest substance known to man, only a diamond surpasses it in hardness and it can increase the hardness of a standard aluminium surface by 3 times. This is why, all our collectors are MARINE GRADE by default.

 3)      DZ90 hard coat properly specified and maintained will virtually last indefinitely, well in excess of 50 years and then, after that, only it’s appearance will fade, aluminium is still aluminium.

4) And if that was not enough, the long life pitched roof mounting kit is designed to exceed the requirements of the new UK MCS mounting standard (MCS 012) for pitched roofs to be implimented soon. This mounting kit is also aluminium, electrochemically coated with (DZ90 hard coat) as are the flat, ground and wall mounting kits.  

 The internals

 1)      Uniquely, the SP501 collector is NOT assembled. It is a factory manufactured unit. It ships in one piece and arrives in one piece. There are NO service parts or components. Nothing to replace, nothing to go wrong.

 2)      A critical component is the internal copper jacket, a one piece high pressure water jacket. Copper is also an element [Cu], a semi-precious metal and also very expensive. It is an excellent conductor of heat which is fundamental at removing the energy from a very high efficiency solar collector into your hot water cylinder or air conditioning system.

 3)      Copper has a life span typically of 50 years in a standard piping configuration when pinholes may appear due to wear from the water flow BUT the SP501 operates in a proprietary TDLF (thermodynamic laminar flow) solar technology system with a Reynolds Number less than 2000; so has multiples less friction and wear than a standard solar hot water circuit during its life. This will further extend the long design life of this one piece integral copper jacket far beyond its design life of 50 years.

 Uniqueness

 1)      What is remarkable about the SP501 solar collector is that it has no moving parts or consumables. It DOES NOT have any heat-pipes, seals, rubber gaskets, jubilee clips, click fit connections, attic insulation, snap connections, snap down covers, plastic fittings, rubber o-rings or other components which can fail, warp, crack or degrade sometimes without your knowledge.

 2)      TDLF – Thermo Dynamic Laminbar Flow (developed and patented by Surface Power) also DOES NOT suffer from overheating and has excellent performance even in bad weather, hence its catalogue of impressive leading government certifications around the world including the world’s highest government certified TRNSYS modelling output per sqm at 783 kWhrs/m2/yr.

 3)      It is simply a “very very very” expensive piece of aluminium and copper but because it uses proprietary heating technology developed and patented by Surface Power, it produces the most power per sqm. It is simpler, it is more reliable, there is nothing to fail except copper and aluminium and hence has a significant life span over existing solar thermal collectors. Its design life was to be 50 years plus and it meets and exceeds that design requirement.

 4)     There are NO stainless steels/steels/tins/alloys/rubbers/push fittings, quick connects, etc to fail or rust.

 5)      There are no special proprietary tubes to make it expensive to service. SP501 tubes actually have to block direct sunlight with their coatings as the science that runs in the systems is so powerful at difused light conversion; but the tubes are easy to change and inexpensive to purchase (if ever required).

6) The SP501 and its system science were designed to provide investor and customer security for the duration of contracts of performance such as needed for the UK’s Renewable Heat Incentive. The SP501 provides the risk free warranty for investors to invest in RHI tariffs. RHI Investments also come with fixed cost maintenance contracts for the 20 year term of the RHI. SEE MORE ON THIS NEW RHI TARIFF PROGRAM AND INVESTMENT MODELS HERE .

 Corporate Responsibility, Recycling & the Environment

 1)      As everyone is aware, we cannot throw away our products anymore. The SP501 has been designed to be the most environmentally responsible solar collector in the world.

 2)      All manufacturers will soon come under recycling directives where products must be taken back for recycling or must be of such commercial interest that they can be sold by the owner for recycling;

1. The SP501 design brief was to create a product designed to last “forever”; the influence of this design brief means you should not need to exchange your product for decades. Our simple service requirement will keep it operational and performing.
2. BUT if you ever need to end its life for what ever reason, you can be confident that we will take it back and as the product is made from Aluminium, Copper and Glass, these elements will find their way back into new products as they can be recycled completely. It is believed that 80% of the copper ever mined is still in use today.

 This means when you now choose the SP501 solar thermal collector, you choose;

• The most powerful output per sqm,
• The most environmentally responsible,
• The only 20 year performance warranty,
• Investor grade products & solutions,
• The longest life solar thermal collector in the world.

 “Simply, in a class of its own”

This means we will provide a warranty that your solar thermal collector will produce 80% or greater of its initial solar performance in year 20.

To maintain the warranty, you simply need to service your system according to the requirements of your climate, typically 4 to 5 times over the first 20 years and have your system in our online network.

Information supplied by the customer and reproduced with the customers permission.

CUSTOMERS SYSTEM RECOVERS TO 100% HOT WATER REQUIREMENTS (40C) IN JUST 17 MINUTES

AND IT’S OCTOBER WITH POOR WEATHER ALL WEEK 

OUR SOLAR HOT WATER SYSTEMS KEEP THINKING THAT THEY ARE OIL BOILERS EVEN IN ORDINARY WEATHER.

Today is Oct 7th, the weather this week has been simply, terrible, there is no other way to describe it. But anyone with a Surface Power “all year” solar hot water system (or solar central heating system) should still NOT have had their boiler on for hot water this week AND if you upgraded your insulation, you should not have had any oil or gas heating turned on SO another FREE ENERGY WEEK even with this bad weather.

To show you what you can get, here is a customers Surface Power solar system, it’s 5 years old, and it thinks its a boiler. Here is direct information and video shot by the customer.

This screenshot below was taken at 1:56pm, lunchtime. 100% of daily hot water already well achieved at 56C with the whole cylinder still being  heated and a Delta T of nearly  +20C indicating cloudy but bright weather.

 A significant amount of water was emptied from the cylinder at 3:15pm with the result of the water temperature dropping to 29.8C. 

The next screenshot below shows that 3 minutes later, the solar collectors had raised 150L of water (300L cylinder), approx twice the size of a standard house copper cylinder by 2.8 C.

The next screenshot below shows that another 6 minutes later, the solar collectors had raised 150L of water (300L cylinder), approx twice the size of a standard house copper cylinder by another 3.5 C.

The next screenshot below shows that another 2 minutes later, the solar collectors had raised 150L of water (300L cylinder), approx twice the size of a standard house copper cylinder by another 1.1 C.

The next screenshot below shows that another 2 minutes later, the solar collectors had raised 150L of water (300L cylinder), approx twice the size of a standard house copper cylinder by another 1 C.

The next screenshot below shows that another 2 minutes later, the solar collectors had raised 150L of water (300L cylinder), approx twice the size of a standard house copper cylinder by 1 C.

The next screenshot below shows that another 2 minutes later, the solar collectors had raised 150L of water (300L cylinder), approx twice the size of a standard house copper cylinder by another 1C bringing the cylinder back to 100% of daily hot water of 300L again.

THE SYSTEM HAS RECOVERED THE CYLINDER IN JUST 17 MINUTES.

The next screenshot below shows that ANOTHER 5 minutes later, the solar collectors had raised 150L of water (300L cylinder), approx twice the size of a standard house copper cylinder by another 2 C.

The next screenshot below shows that another 7 minutes later, the solar collectors had raised 150L of water (300L cylinder), approx twice the size of a standard house copper cylinder by 2.5 C.

AND SO ON THE SYSTEM KEEPS TAKING FREE LIGHT FROM THE SKY AND MAKING HEAT.

HOW MUCH OIL/GAS/COAL SPENT ?

A BIG FAT ZERO !

It will probably surprise many people to find out that there are different generations of Solar Vacuum Hot Water Systems and ALL are still being sold today. You may have just bought one but which generation is it ?

This is why you see HUGE differences between performance of solar vacuum systems and why there is so much confusion. We have many requests from people who have just bought Solar Vacuum systems and they can’t understand how our customers systems are producing so much more energy than them.

THIS POST WILL EXPLAIN THE MAIN DIFFERENCES…

NOTE: This is the first time you have probably heard anything about the different generations of Solar Vacuum Technology anywhere.

FIRST Generation Solar Vacuum Systems, (about 35 years old), still being sold on the market, always compared to flat plates due to their low performance.

How to recognise one ?, simple, it has a single wall (not double skinned vacuum) clear glass tube and a strip of absorber inside.

Fig: First Generation Solar Vacuum System – (approx 35 years old)

Whilst they are still available to buy in very well known BRAND NAMES, they are quite old at this stage. How did they come about. Simple, a bright Engineer about 35 years ago looked at flat plates in sunny climates and made an assumption that if he put the strips of a flat plate absorber into glass tubes, he would improve on the output of flat plate collectors in cloudy climates. Here is a picture of a flat plate solar collector with its covers off.

He simply decided to split the absorber and put it in glass tubes. A new version of this has a direct flow pipe instead of a heat-pipe. THIS IS FIRST GENERATION SOLAR VACUUM HOT WATER TECHNOLOGY.

NEXT….

SECOND Generation Solar Vacuum System’s, (about 25 years old), still being sold on the market, noted for their lack of performance in poor weather and over-heating problems in sunshine. THIS IS THE MAJORITY OF SOLAR VACUUM SYSTEMS BEING SOLD ON THE MARKET TODAY AS THE COLLECTORS CAN BE SHIPPED BROKEN UP IN LONG BOXES.

You will always hear about sizing to only do 90% of your hot water in case of overheating (of course this makes it poor performing in winter), the adding of dump radiators, etc. with this technology. Here is a picture of this type of solar heat-pipe. There is a condensing heat-pipe running into a twin walled vacuum tube with a sealing cap to hold in the heat. The tube always carries a selective coating so it looks black on the outside. The heat pipe then plugs into the manifold and heats up the manifold. When the manifold gets heated, it transfers the heat to the water passing through. This process is fairly inefficient.

Fig: Second Generation Solar Vacuum System – (approx 25 years old)

THIS IS SECOND GENERATION SOLAR VACUUM HOT WATER TECHNOLOGY.

NEXT…..

THIRD Generation Solar Vacuum Systems, (about 8 years old), still being sold on the market BUT only a few suppliers make this generation of system, it is noted for more stable performance than Heat Pipes and has reduced the overheating issues on really hot days. It is more expensive to produce and unless it is shipped in one piece, it has to have rubber seals and run at low pressure. THIS IS TYPICALLY CALLED  A U-TUBE OR DIRECT FLOW COLLECTOR.

Here is what it looks like:

You can see that the circulating water runs into the glass tube via copper pipes unlike any of the 1st and 2nd generations where the water only runs in the manifold. The tubes are twin walled and have a selective coating and appear black on the outside.

ONE MAJOR DRAWBACK (and it is a biggie): If this type of collector comes as a kit (and not in one piece out of the box) and has to be assembled at the installation site, then it will cost a significant amount of money to change a tube. The system will need to be drained down, tube changed and then refilled, this is in effect a FULL SERVICE every time you want to change a tube. Typically the new tube will come with all the pipework so can be over £120 a tube ON TOP of the full service cost.

If the collector is one piece and can’t be broken down, then this does not apply, the changing of a glass tube takes seconds, like changing a light bulb and is a few quid at most. THIS IS THIRD GENERATION SOLAR VACUUM HOT WATER TECHNOLOGY.

NEXT….

FOURTH Generation Solar Vacuum Sytems, (about 4 years old), this is proprietary technology to Surface Power. It involves a system wide science called TDLF (thermodynamic laminar flow technology) coupled with MPPTt, (Maximum Power Point Tracking – thermal). Several patents cover this technology which has been developed to create high powered solar air conditioning and solar central heating systems.

You can see its performance in the samples of our live systems 24/7. http://www.surfacepower.com/live.html

The key thing to notice is the different power band, (kWhrs produced) that is the difference in temperature between the collectors and the cylinder/pool/heating system, etc. Normal solar systems go from +3C to +7C and switch on and off all day. Surface Power systems do not work like this, they operate a DELTA T of between +10C and +25C bringing much larger amounts of power in any given day; and can stay running ALL DAY. Even at a DELTA T of +15C, it is still cloudy and many times higher than the average of any of the 1st, 2nd or 3rd generation solar vacuum technology’s.

Here is a Surface Power SP501 solar collector, (we only have the one type, size, shape, tube quantity), why have more than 1 type of solar collector ?, you can’t improve on perfection…

THIS IS FOURTH GENERATION SOLAR VACUUM HOT WATER TECHNOLOGY AND ONLY AVAILABLE FROM SURFACE POWER.

Flat Plate solar hot water collector use is collapsing globally in favour of Vacuum type collectors. 

All you have to do is look at the latest statistics produced by the IEA and ESTIF in Brussels.

The stats from 2009 (stats are always approx 2 years behind) show a collapse in the use of Flat Plate collectors in NEW Solar Hot Water installations. In 2009, newly installed solar hot water systems were 78.3% using evacuated tube type technologies and only 17.3% were flat plate technologies.

Customers, Installers, Distributors and Projects are all moving away from Flat Plate collectors in their droves.

Source:ESTIF and IEA

The UK and Ireland are set for a short Indian Summer next week for the END OF SEPTEMBER with the UK weather services predicting record temperatures could be set. The current high for this time of year of 27.5C was set in 1985.

HOWEVER; EVEN THOUGH THE WEATHER HAS BEEN POOR this year; YOU STILL SHOULD HAVE NO BOILER ON IF YOU HAVE THE FOLLOWING 2 THINGS DONE TO YOUR HOME.

1/ UPGRADED YOUR INSULATION, The weather has not been great as of late but it has not been cold enough for well insulated homes to require heating. If you have had your heating on, then you should take a look at your insulation.

2/ IF YOU HAVE AN ALL YEAR SURFACE POWER SOLAR HOT WATER SYSTEM, you wouldn’t need your boiler either; even though the weather has been pretty terrible. All your hot water should be coming from daylight regardless of the weather.

Have a look at our customers today Sat 24th Sept !!, record temperatures even though our weather has been cloudy with showers.

 IRELAND: Cylinder temperatures in excess of 81C, (these are temperatures our competitors would be happy to achieve on the hottest summers day in July.) 

 UK: Cylinder temperatures in excess of 65C on a NORTH FACING SYSTEM, (these are temperatures our competitors would be happy to achieve on the hottest summers day in July ON A SOUTH FACING SYSTEM.)  

We now require more installers who can install our Solar Central Heating & Hot Water Systems.

Our systems are quick to install, but state of the art in terms of the latest solar technology.

Our installers install more systems in Winter than in Summer and we are to looking to expand our certified installer list due to increased demand as people want to cut their heating bills by 50% – 80% with the large 40% increase due in heating bills this year over last year.  (these savings are what our solar central heating & hot water systems typically do currently) and we are installing and designing them for regular houses since 2003. (NOTE: you cannot take on a central heating customer unless we approve the design to at least achieve a target 50% reduction in their oil/gas bill and the customer can talk to us to confirm design approval)

Please note that while training is available, there is no guarantee of being approved by us to install this type of central heating system. Only competent trades should apply. Training is FREE for Installers who carry out installations.

Contact our national distribution hub at sales@nationalsolar.eu with your details and you will be contacted regarding training course information (for experienced solar installers, 6 hours). Limited places only.  (Courses, SEPT, NOV, DEC booking now, sorry, only a few places on these courses, first come, first served)

All solar central heating & hot water systems are online and SMART GRID enabled by default, (a broadband connection is required on the customer location). Our engineers install the SMART grid online system FREE, you just need to install the solar system, we are busy, contact us now if you are in the trade.  Many installers of other old style flat plates and vacuum systems heat pipe systems are sailing through our training courses ….

CARLTON HOTEL GALWAY CITY, CARLTON SHEARWATER HOTEL & C SPA BALLINASLOE, CARLTON ATLANTIC COAST HOTEL & C SPA WESTPORT, CARLTON CASTLETROY PARK HOTEL LIMERICK

 Galway – Ballinasloe – Westport – Limerick. Carlton Hotels and Carlton C Spa Hotels.

*Limited Availability*

Reward Yourself Special Offer

How does two nights for two in any one of the ten Carlton Hotels or Spa Hotels sound? Can you feel invigorated and refreshed just thinking about it? Can you taste the fine dining experience?

Offer includes

Two nights B&B for two, evening meal for two on one night, €50 hotel voucher valid in all of the Carlton Hotels for you to do what you please. Redeem it against spa treatments, food, or give it to some-one for Christmas, it’s up to you.

A bundle of 2 night breaks for two has been purchased to reward shoppers for their intelligent & energy savvy decision to purchase a Surface Power SP501 system.*

The deal is available on a first come first served basis. Not available with any other offer or promotion. Not redeemable for cash. Subject to one offer per system installed and is available on Sp501 Solar Compact system and larger configurations. Bookings are subject to hotel accommodation availability.

 To avail of this offer please e-mail surface power with your name, phone # & location.

Hurry, limited offer. For a FREE SURVEY, just fill your details below. 

http://www.surfacepower.com/contact.html

terms and conditions apply.

Link to report at bottom of page. 

A new 15 month study of the performance output of Solar Hot Water commissioned by ACME Energy Investments in London has just been completed to help create finance and banking investment models for the UK’s RHI (renewable heat incentive).

“There can be no second guessing performance outputs on Solar Thermal RHI, how can we invest in an industry that has never shown “real-time” performance data, what is our ROI, the system which spins the heat meter the fastest and longest gets the highest tariff, what equipment manufacturer do I invest in to make the highest return, does anyone know ?”. ASSET MANAGER.

 (System 1 in the report) produced 3.12 times more “delivered” energy in the year than another top European solar  vacuum system. It’s clear there will be big winners and losers in the manufacturing of solar thermal as investors race after the real “performance proven manufacturers”

This report has compared two different top of the range solar hot water systems of which System 1 in the report is a Surface Power SP501 PRO in a real customer. The results in the report are groundbreaking. The detailed study was done on 2 installed systems to determine how much “real energy” (kWhrs) they would produce, (to test manufacturers claims).

If you are a householder, installer, developer, engineer, architect or anyone involved in solar thermal heating & cooling, then you need to get this report by going to the webpage listed below. This report will be of value to anyone with an interest in the solar hot water, solar central heating and solar cooling arena including householders.

Some of the findings in the report are as follows:

1. System 1 clearly outperformed System 2 by an amazing 3.12 times more output per year.
2. If you add up the energy produced ONLY during the 6 months of the winter on System1, it is more than the whole years energy produced on System 2.
3. The profile of the Delta T on system 1 clearly produces more power hence the logical reason for more energy.
4. This changes all the legacy understandings of solar hot water from here forward. The rules have changed.

What people are saying about the report.

“Excellent work, I can now create an investment model for RHI solar with at least 1 manufacturer”, Asset Manager.

“fantastic, I learnt so much about solar hot water, well written in simple easy to understand language, everyone should read this who is thinking of buying solar hot water”, HOUSEOWNER.

“very interesting document, confirms a lot of what I had suspected about performance claims but never really knew enough to challenge it myself , ” INSTALLER/CONTRACTOR.

“Thats the first time I have seen such detail explained in such simple language, now I feel I know what I am talking about when it comes to solar hot water” ARCHITECT.

“Loads of information on immersion usage, monthly statistics, graphs, explanations, a complete encylopedia on solar hot water even I can understand” HOMEOWNER

“Payback, Payback, Payback, brilliant, just what I needed to buy solar hot water, best £95 I ever spent” HOMEOWNER 

GET THE REPORT HERE.

First Published 1st September, 2011.

A top secret solar project in Ireland breaks cover

The famous Jacksons Hotel in Donegal is known far and wide for its conferences, weddings and fantastic leisure centre on the banks of the River Finn in historic ballybofey. The famous Donegal International rally even HQ’s here when it’s in town.

What is little known until now is that it’s fantastic full size leisure centre swimming pool is the largest solar thermal heating project in the country at over 380,000 Litres of pool water heated daily by a state of the art solar system, with all the energy being provided by daylight only.

The project incorporates one of Surface Powers (www.surfacepower.com) high tech solar thermal systems with its patented MPPTt performance management systems which yield much more energy than legacy old style solar hot water. The main contractor on the job was Heatcraft Renewables (www.heatcraft.ie) from Co. Offaly.

Commenting on the project for Heatcraft, Managing Director Michael Keane said “this commercial project is one of the most high tech solar thermal installations in the world with Surface Power’s remote MPPTt (editors note: MPPTt is a complex performance technology developed, patented and owned by Surface Power) servers in the USA managing the systems efficiency 400 times a second. The system was installed in Nov 2010 and we were not allowed discuss the project publically until today. The performance has been staggering so far with the solar system completely removing the requirement for any other heat source even on cloudy days for weeks at a time”

“Even now, the first day of September, with heavy cloudy weather, it is pulling a Delta T of +10C and this is even perplexing the most seasoned solar thermal experts”, he added.

Niall Maher, Senior Account Manager with Heatcraft: “Even though this project is state of the art, the use of the newest solar thermal technology from Surface Power meant that the total cost of the project was only half the price of our competitors quotations using old style solar flat plates and vacuum heat pipes, and we can even produce lots more power. The online system has only been made public from the 1st of September so anyone can now look at the system and its performance LIVE online 24/7. Our association with the best technology is having a great impact on our business as everybody wants the best and it even costs significantly less than the major solar brands when compared, that’s probably why we are working 7 days a week at the moment: he added.”

It is clear to all that oil, electricity and gas bills are only going in one direction, with significant increases about to kick in of up to 25%. With some manufacturers like Surface Power having made major technology advances in recent years, including shortening the payback to less than 5 or 6 years on commercial projects, it is only natural we are going to see an explosion of hotels, factory’s, nursing home’s, hospitals and swimming pools installing these types of systems as more professional experienced contractors become available. After all, the energy (daylight) costs nothing !

The UK shortly launches the RHI, a payment tariff for the production of solar hot water, (yes, you will get a FREE cheque in the post for 20 years), the first type of this scheme in europe and other countries expected to follow suit shortly to meet their EU 2020 targets.

So, if you need a weekend of TLC knowing that you could have a swim in a nice warm pool heated with natural daylight, you could do worse that make your way to Jacksons Hotel in Ballybofey. They can be contacted on 074-9131021 or www.booking.com

The online system can be viewed LIVE at www.surfacepower.com/jacksonshotel_data.html (if your interent explorer is old, you could download safari to view)

Jordan’s Star Trek theme park will be a sprawling 74 hectare development, but it does have an eco upside.

Since its various eco-parks and green housing projects haven’t done enough to stimulate an appreciation of sustainable development in Jordan’s residents, perhaps the Kingdom’s crazy new Star Trek themed park can fill in the gaps. Once an extra in a Star Trek Voyager episode, King Abdullah is no doubt behind the inspiration to build a $1.5 billion dollar project in the port city of Aqaba that, unlike the UAE’s absurd Global Warming Park, will be a “23rd century” showcase of renewable energy.

Funding for this project, which is expected to provide at least 500 hundred high-skilled jobs, will come from investors in both the United States and the Gulf region. Amman-based Rubicon Group Holding will be responsible for developing the entertainment elements of the resort, while Paramount Recreation will oversee the “Star Trek” component.

Although the resort is massive – at 74 hectares – and will feature obnoxious four star hotels and 17 entertainment zones, it does have an eco-upside that has the power to inadvertently teach visitors about the benefits of cleantech and other creative environmental solutions.

A pavilion will showcase greywater harvesting, solar energy, wind energy, and a variety of other renewable techniques that will also be incorporated into the development itself. Callison has been commissioned to work with Rubicon to design the futuristic facilities that is hoped will also stimulate tourist activity.

This is the splashiest intervention to come from the usually circumspect Kingdom. It remains to be seen whether it will have a negative or positive net environmental impact.

:: Hotelier Middle East

More on Jordan’s Renewable Future:

New Eco-Park in Jordan

Jordan’s Valley Eco-Center Opens Guesthouse

Jordan Teams with Spanish Firm to Cool Homes with the Sun