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.

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.

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.

Renewable Energy World.com

New reports are showing that the old style solar flat plate collector is on the decline since 2009 AND that solar central heating installations are becoming more important than just solar hot water.

The flat plate collector can trace its origins to 1891 (No, not 1981 but 1891) when it was originally developed and today’s current flat plate collectors are attributed to the 1950′s developed by Hottel and Whillier. Very little innovation has occurred with flat plate collectors since. They are simply a box with a glass lid and some pipes inside. There are still many flat plate collectors made from wood for sale today, (believe it or not)

1891 — Baltimore inventor Clarence Kemp (“the father of solar energy in the U.S.”) patents first commercial Climax Solar Water Heater. By 1910, the Climax had competition, especially from the Night and Day solar hot water company, which used a secondary loop from the collector to a water tank. By 1920, over 5,000 Night and Day heaters had been sold in California At the same time, a boom in solar hot water heaters started in Florida, where electricity was a very expensive competitor. About 15,000 units were sold by 1937. (Butt & Perlin)

The latest report from the IEA (International Energy Agency), highlight that 2009 figures show another ground breaking increase in solar thermal by 36.5 GWth, an increase of approx 25% in global solar hot water collectors, BUT the good news is for innovative newer solar thermal vacuum panels from company’s who have been investing heavily in R&D. These technologies are all using vacuum based designs and these technologies accounted for most of the world growth at a staggering 35%.

Flat Plate collector growth was stagnant at a little over 2% in 2009 and although the IEA figures do not include 2010, all the evidence suggests that this pattern continued in 2010 as well.   

 This means that many of the flat plate manufacturers in Europe faced a challenging economic year in 2009, and again in 2010, while innovative vacuum based collector manufacturers growth is booming.

Another clear sign in the market is coming from Austria and Germany with Solar Central Heating becoming the norm. These specialised applications need the highest performance and newest innovative solar panel technologies. This may well be an indication of why there is a dramatic shift. It is well known that flat plates work fine if you live in a  climate with good blue sky sunshine. The shift to all year solar thermal systems could lead to the complete demis of the outdated flat plate collector. (although a 120 year history for the solar flat plate has been a significant lifespan)

According to the Solar Heat Worldwide report; Austria who has always led the original solar thermal market had 45% of its solar installations in 2009 installed as solar central heating & hot water versus 45% hot water only. Germany had 35% of its new installations in 2009 installed as solar central heating & hot water systems. This represents HUGE growth in these more complex and challenging systems and may account for the dominance of more powerful solar vacuum panel technologies.

Top 10 world markets for solar hot water panels – 2009.

One major installer group which specialises in Solar central heating & hot water systems commented:

“we saw the writing on the wall in 2009 when we stopped installing flat plates. They simply were no competition for solar vacuum collectors. Since then, we will now only work with a hand full of vacuum manufacturers as even some vacuum collectors, mainly heat pipe ones are completely unpredictable for performance and the construction materials are questionable. There are some newer solar vacuum panels from company’s who have invested heavily in R&D programs and they are leading the way in performance. 50% of our work is now combination solar central heating & hot water systems so we can no longer guess about performance, we need proof because our customers are much better informed and they demand it”.

ESTIF President, Robin Welling said: The solar industry has experienced the full impact of the financial crisis. we expected to get some benefit of the combined implementation of the binding renewable targets and higher energy performance standards – but this process is only beginning.

In Summary, There is a clear message coming from the data just released, with a history of over 100 years, the solar flat plate collector is in decline and has struggled to successfully move into markets where weather is poorer versus the initial sunny summer markets like Austria and Germany.  These all year round solar central heating applications “even in Germany” need real performance, not smoke and mirrors, and ironically, as these sunny markets move to solar central heating and hot water systems, they are now turning their back on the old type solar flat plate collector in favour of newer R&D backed solar vacuum collectors to deliver this “all year requirement” expected from future installations. 

If you still drove a car designed in the 1950′s, this is what you would be driving.

If you still drove a car designed in 1891, this is what you would be driving a Peugeot Type 3 Quadricycle.

This is a technical advisory regarding the installation of solar central heating systems and consideration for correct operation within a particular building design.

This advisory is to provide advanced technical information regarding the installation, operation and design of Surface Power solar central heating systems, (note: solar central heating systems also do hot water). This advisory only considers retrofitting houses. (new builds have different design requirements and more options)

MENU:

• House legacy design issues
• Do everything in one go
• What you will save financially?
• How it all works?

 HOUSE LEGACY DESIGN ISSUES.

Existing houses have a number of design issues, your building may have some of these issues and they will all cost you money in wasted annual heating energy bills.

• Poor attic and cavity wall insulation.
• Poor heating pipework insulation.
• Boiler located outside in the yard.
• Boiler located in an outside shed. (is your car warmer than you ?)
• Old inefficient boiler

BUT what you may not realise is that your boiler can become even more inefficient after you upgrade your insulation AS it now will be switching ON and OFF more often. It is therefore very important that you complete a few tasks at once when considering a Solar Central Heating upgrade.

With English, Scottish, Welsh & Irish climates, we have very benign weather relatively speaking impacting the design. If you want more detail as to why we design systems this way, have a look at our blogs in relation to these subjects, they are discussed in detail. Just as you cannot install a solar heating system design from Arizona in the UK & Ireland, you also cannot install a solar central heating design from the UK & Ireland in Arizona (or anywhere else). These systems are all interlinked with the local climatic conditions, and cloud is the predominant condition in the UK & Ireland.

DO EVERYTHING IN ONE GO.

By doing all the small jobs with the big job in one go, you get the best return on your investment. So if you do the following and you complete it according to our guidance, you will save over 50% of your annual heating & hot water energy bills.  (note, this only apply’s to our high temperature solar systems).

Do the following in one go:

• Attic insulation up to 300mm
• Cavity wall insulation, upgrade with bonded bead even if you have areaboard inside it
• Your boiler loses heat energy in 3 ways:
1. By being outside and cooling down when it shuts off & heating up when it turns on
2. With losses through ground pipes which will be poor insulators
3. With poor conversion efficiencies of 50% for 10 year old boilers.
• When you install Solar Hot Water &/OR Solar Central Heating, you should include a new smaller internal boiler in the house where possible which will remove loses 1 and 2, improves 3 and it also makes your solar system contribute a higher percentage of FREE heat energy.
•  These items will help you achieve a 50% or greater reduction in your heating energy requirement AND make your home more comfortable.
• Also, note if the winter is very cold & frosty like the last couple of winters, your solar input will sky rocket with a Surface Power solar system as it does not matter what the outside temperature is.

Doing everything in one go is the cheapest way to do all this work. To change the boiler, you have to DRAIN down your heating system. To install your solar cylinder, you have to DRAIN down your heating system. Doing it at the same time saves you ALOT OF money.

 WHAT WILL IT SAVE YOU FINANCIALLY?

Using current customers data which is now 5 years plus, you will save 50% or more, some of our customers as profiled are saving much more than this annually but we will stick to the 50% or more as a safe measure. This means that you can pay for these installations in approx 5 years with the savings and then the next 25 years gives you excellent annual addition cash to spend instead of wasting it on fuel bills.

This is what you waste your energy on, do you recognise anything ?  

1. If your boiler is in the shed/garage, you waste up to 15%, after you insulate the house better, you waste up to 20% of your oil/gas.
2. If your boiler pipework coming across the yard does not have the new type of super insulated pipework, it wastes up to 10% of your oil/gas.
3. If your cylinder is not a factory insulated unit, (ignore lagging jackets on standard copper cylinders), it loses heat overnight and will require your boiler on in the morning to top up the cylinder (see points 1 & 2).
4. If your attic is not insulated, your room heat rises into the attic, typical symptoms in cold weather are WARM HEAD and COLD FEET. Up to 30% of your energy lost.
5. Uninsulated cavity walls lose up to 25% of your heat.

Every winter and summer when you use your oil or gas you are wasting energy. Remember, even with a Surface Power solar hot water system in summer, your boiler should be off all the time even when the weather is not great. You do not need any sunshine for it to work.

HOW IT ALL WORKS.

This applies to ALL legacy houses that are of standard build and construction in the UK & Ireland. If the house was built before 2006, it will achieve much higher savings than stated typically.

By installing a Surface Power Solar Central Heating system you will be trying to adjust your buildings profile from the following typical profile:

1. Annual Hot Water Energy Usage – 40% of TOTAL; after upgrade down to 10% of TOTAL (includes reductions in direct and indirect boiler use for heating hot water), 30% FREE.
2. Annual Heating Usage to heat up your equipment – 30% of TOTAL; after upgrade down to 10% of TOTAL (i.e. boiler, pipes, walls, floor, etc), 20% FREE. 
3. Annual Heating Usage to maintain the heat after the system has heated up (2) – 30% of TOTAL; after upgrade down to 20% of TOTAL, 10% FREE.

This would give a saving of approx 60% off you ANNUAL HEATING BILL BUT if you moved your boiler inside, blocked unused chimneys, etc, this could be greater.

NOTE: We advise our installer network to give our customers a good understanding of this information so they can do a complete upgrade which meets “best practice”. 

 BACK TO THE SOLAR CENTRAL HEATING & HOT WATER SYSTEM UPGRADE.

Note: A Surface Power Solar Central Heating system contributes to hot water and central heating energy.

MYTH 1: Does this mean I don’t need a boiler, solar will provide all my heating? ANSWER: In the UK & Ireland, NO, (although that can happen if the day was really sunny and the night is cool enough to warrant some heating) but the solar system integrates with the oil/gas fired system. Its about your TOTAL energy at the end of the year. (for example. Your Total Energy = 100%, and that is broken down into 65% FREE Solar + 35% oil/gas = 100%.)

 MYTH 2: If I install an 800L buffer tank, I was told that it will run my heating system because it can store a large volume of solar water. ANSWER. NOT likely in the UK or Ireland, unless you are happy to heat your house with a large cylinder of cold water in winter. The solution for the UK & Ireland is high power solar systems into concentrated stores, don’t forget a 300L cylinder heated to 80C will provide the exact same amount of heating roughly as an 800L at 40C BUT the 800L cylinder will ALSO not heat up your hot water high enough in spring, summer and autumn without a commercial size solar installation and/or oil and gas running. (This is a solution for another country most likely with a different weather pattern, big cylinders need blue sky sunny summers guaranteed )

INSTALLATION STARTS HERE:

STAGE 1: Remove the existing cylinder and replace with a SPSCHBuffer/Hot Water cylinder, size will vary on house but typically 300L up to 3000 sqft. There is a size that will fit into ALL houses even small ones with small hot presses. 

STAGE 2: Connect the boiler directly to the SPCHXXX Cylinder as the boiler will no longer feed the heating circuit directly. If your boiler is in the shed, this is an ideal time to get a low cost smaller internal boiler which will also be of higher efficiency. (If you have upgraded your insulation, your boiler can be a smaller kw model)

STAGE 3: This cylinder will have 2 stats controlled by your familiar HOT WATER ON and HEATING ON switches. This means that you have a low temperature hot water stat set at 40C at the top of the cylinder which calls the boiler ON whenever the top of the cylinder is below 40C. Your solar will produce this first of course but you may use alot of water at night and need a quick boost, boiler runtime is extremely short but in reality, you will have a full cylinder of hot water typically unless the weather is really bad (winter like). Also, as you do not have to meet Legionaires requirements (min of 60C hot water)  in this design, you save even more energy which would have been wasted. (your existing oil/gas boiler can’t be set below 60C, have a look). With this design, your boiler has a 60C MIN TEMP stat but the cylinder switches off the boiler when the hot water stat reaches 40C (providing the hot water switch is turned on).

STAGE 4: The 2nd cylinder stat is the Heating ON stat placed at the middle of the cylinder and this will call the boiler ON when the water is at 50C or lower in the middle of the cylinder (providing the heating switch is turned on). Note: As you increase the insulation of your home, you can actually run your radiators (or underfloor) at lower temperatures to get the same result with even lower energy. 

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION.

FAQ LIST…

Q: Is my cylinder full of hot water for my showers?; A: YES & NO, technically it is full of central heating water but there is a coil where your domestic hot water runs through, this takes heat from the cylinder water as it passes and delivers hot water as normal. It is simply the reverse of how you would normally heat a cylinder. It means that you no longer have to waste energy heating hot water to 60C for legionaires legislation when all you need is 40C for showers, etc.

Q: I have a regular terraced house, can this be installed?: A: Yes, it can be installed in any house, of any size, with any pre-existing system.

Q: Does this cylinder replace my existing hot water cylinder? A: Yes.

Q: Will there a significant additional works required versus installing a standard solar hot water system? A: NO, 95% of the work would need to be completed in a standard solar hot water system install.

Q: Will my house still work the same way? A: Yes, but with lower bills and ample amounts of FREE hot water.

Please email any other questions to support@surfacepower.com

Note: This is not a design for any other solar system, Surface Power solar systems are high temperature and high performance, this design specification has been perfected by us since 2005 and typically produces in excess of 50% savings in annual heating bills. (highest recorded in Ireland, 85% reduction, see case study in blog).

This is a technical advisory regarding the installation of solar systems where there is a solid fuel hookup required in the building.

We sometimes issue advisory’s where there is evidence of a practise in the solar installation industry which we feel may lead to an incorrect installation design in solar hot water systems primarally (as we must approve all solar central heating designs, that type of installation is a lower risk).

This advisory relates to the CORRECT DESIGN of solar hot water cylinders for use with OUR solar systems where a solid fuel input is also required. Surface Power Solar systems run at high temperature and a HIGH Delta T and are unlike low temperature solar systems from other manufacturers.

THIS ADVISORY OUTLINES THE CORRECT METHODOLOGY FOR CYLINDERS WITH A SOLID FUEL INPUT.

Diagram 1 below outlines the design of a solar cylinder which correctly shows the boiler input coil on top and the solar input coil at the bottom. Sizing rules should be followed as normal.

However, when adding a solid fuel coil to the cylinder, you should NOT push it in between the solar coil and the boiler coil. IT SHOULD BE ADDED TO THE BOTTOM OF THE STORE AS IN DIAGRAM 2 above.

The following DIAGRAM 3 is the INCORRECT way to integrate solid fuel into one of our solar systems. 

 When you are designing a solar system for a house with solid fuel input, you need to design the cylinder in 2 stages:

Stage 1: FORGET the solid fuel input for a moment, just consider the building as if it ONLY has a solar input and a boiler (gas/oil) input. Design your cylinder size based on these criteria only. See the next Diagram 1 again.

Stage 2: NEXT, you consider the solid fuel input. This will go onto the end of the cylinder BELOW the solar coil.

If you worked out that your solar hot water installation was a 200L/250L, you may add an extra 50L-100L for the solid fuel coil at the bottom of the cylinder.

The correct format is the following one for the inclusion of solid fuel:

 Any questions, simply contact support@surfacepower.com

The following profiles were taking from a customers system with their permission on July 24th.

The following information from a customers system highlights HOW a Surface Power solar system produces its energy from daylight ONLY. In the following post. you can see that, this customers system is capable of producing a FULL cylinder of usable hot water (40C) EVEN though its been drizzling/raining with heavy low cloud since 7am.

This video shows the weather on the ground 

This screenshot shows the system in production at 10:59am

Here is a view of the telemetry for this system. By 11:03am, the system has achieved a Delta T of +7C EVEN though it is still misting heavily and has been for hours with deep low cloud.

It is this technology breakthrough from Surface Power which allows exceptional performance for Solar Central Heating & Hot Water EVEN in cloudy climates. Legacy solar collectors have been designed IN sunny climates FOR use in sunny climates. Old solar collector science is NOT designed for maximum production in cloudy climates (using light only) as Surface Power’s technology is.

How many other solar manufacturers will show you the REAL data from their systems on the ground. Surface Power is the only solar manufacturer that can prove it’s technology delivers day after day 24/7 publically. See our live customer systems online at www.surfacepower.com round the clock.

Simple, when it uses daylight and not sunlight as its primary energy source. That’s what you get when you use Surface Power solar systems which use our patented thermodynamic laminar solar technology. A northerly facing solar hot water system has no sunlight option NOR has it strong light levels to use for energy which come from the South (when in the northern hemisphere). The reason it works EVEN better facing NORTH than competing systems facing South is DAYLIGHT power.

See below the outstanding power of a Surface Power Solar System facing a Northerly direction in the UK in the morning when sunlight OR strong daylight when cloudy IS on the COMPLETELY OPPOSITE side of the building.

AT 10:04 AM in the morning, this standard system, an SP501PRO-N is producing more power than a South facing solar system at 12 noon at the height of a sunny day.

AT 10:07 AM in the morning, this standard system, an SP501PRO-N is producing more power than a South facing solar system at 12 noon at the height of a sunny day with a Delta T (temperature difference of 9C).

AT 10:10 AM in the morning, this standard system, an SP501PRO-N facing a northerly direction has produced a rise of 3.1C in the bottom 150L of the cylinder, equating to an energy input of 557.8 w/hours OR in simple english the same as having your immersion on for a half an hour.

TO REPEAT IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: This Standard Solar System FACING A NORTHERLY DIRECTION delivered an equivilant of a half hours worth of electric immersion element heating into the cylinder in LESS THAN 6 MINUTES for FREE using light only (as of course the system is facing AWAY from the direction of the SUN.)  

This is another example of how our solar system’s can outrun electrical immersion heating EVEN when they are facing a Northerly direction in the UK and Ireland (in a week with not great weather).

 When we say we use DAYLIGHT to make energy, we only say it BECAUSE we can prove it !

SPECIAL OFFER – JULY AND AUGUST ONLY, FIRST COME FIRST SERVED, LIMITED OFFER.

FREE SOLAR Central Heating & SOLAR Hot Water VOUCHER FOR €2,500 (ROI only)

(download voucher at the bottom of the page)

Is the thought of this winter’s energy bills getting you down, increases of 30% potentially on gas and more increases on electricity AND OIL at record highs. To highlight the fact that our next generation solar thermal can contribute to your central heating systems as well as hot water; We are now giving a substantial €2,500 voucher offer towards upgrading your home to either Solar central heating &/OR Solar hot water, (Note: Solar central heating does BOTH hot water & central heating). See our other blogs as to how it works.

DID YOU KNOW ?

• The current price of Brent crude is $112 today ($118 for sept delivery). 55% HIGHER than last July.
• That home heating oil prices in the UK are up 6.5% in the last 8 weeks. (likely to climb to £1.10/L plus)
• That home heating oil prices in Ireland are up 4% in the last 8 weeks. (likely to climb to €1.25/L plus)
• That GAS increases of 18% in the UK and up to 30% in Ireland are due.
• That electricity prices will increase on GAS increases.

Using the current price of a barrel of oil, home heating oil could be 50% higher than last winter. This winter is ALSO predicted to be a record breaking cold spell again. Did you know that our Solar Energy Systems are at there highest output in Winter in frosty weather. 

ONLY people who can afford to spend (waste) thousands on home heating energy can afford to do nothing. 

If you spent €3,000 on oil in winter 2009, you would have spent €6,000 for the same amount of heating energy last winter (source: cheapestoil.ie), AND with Crude OIL up 55% on last winter, will you pay €7,500 for the same heat in winter 2011/2012 OR you could invest in energy reducing measures such as insulation and solar heating to save your money now? 

Not sure what to do or where to start?, no problem, just register below and we’ll look at your options for FREE, thousands of euros of savings are possible. Let our experts carry out a free survey before you need to decide anything and you can ask them all the questions you need.

We can supply an advanced solar central heating & hot water system especially designed for Ireland & UK conditions. Your house will operate in a similar way to how it does now. Our Solar central heating systems are connected to our MPPTt servers which maximise your FREE energy output.

Is my home suitable ?: We have a design solution for every building, if we think you won’t achieve at least a 50% saving in your heat energy requirement, we won’t approve the design.

Will the installer know how to do this?: Our HOT WATER systems are all pre designed packages, they must be installed as such. Only a Surface Power Master installer is authorised to fit Solar CENTRAL HEATING systems and we will be involved with the process to ensure the optimum design. After installation, our servers in Florida will monitor and optimise the systems so you get the most power output.

Note: A Master Installer has a GOLD ticket quality record and at least 100 installations completed so this guarantees very high quality installations and positive customer outcomes.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD VOUCHER

TO AVAIL OF THIS OFFER: SIMPLY fill out the contact form below for a free survey.

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

System must be designed and installed by an approved Master Installer.

• Terms & conditions apply*
• This offer is subject to first come first served, and subject to a maximum take-up limit
• You must have a liveDSL or Phone Line Modem Broadband connection.
• You must have a broadband router, an additional cost will apply if one must be installed (approx 80-90  euros)
• Some services will need 3G/WiFi or other service and a device. (iPad, iPhone, etc)                                                                                                                                                                                            
• Cannot be used with any other offer, cannot be exchanged for cash, one voucher per system only.
• Subject to contract and design approval.