The SP501 solar thermal collector is a major performance breakthrough in thermal energy generation in both blue-sky (sunny) and more challenging cloudy climates. The collector was designed, developed and rigorously tested in a wide range of climates including some of the challenging weather systems such as wind, rain and cloud. The collector now leads performance in this type of climate and as a result has superior winter performance over any other collector with the highest public certification of 783 kWhrs/m2/yr. Its certification now puts it at up to twice the performance of leading vacuum collectors, over 4 times the performance of leading flat plates and up to 22 times the performance of top US solar collectors*. (*certification - US Government solar hot water mandatory certification process - April 2011).

The SP501 is not like other solar hot water collectors. It is a Direct Flow Non Metal Transfer (DFNMT) solar hot water collector designed for high water temperatures and (patented) thermodynamic laminar flow. It uses a proprietary (patented) MPPTt control algorithm technology unlike legacy solar which uses a low power DTC methods (deferential temperature controller). MPPTt delivers much higher performance as it operates at the maximum power point (maximum power band). This means you can achieve up to 7 times more power (kWhrs) per sqm of installed solar collector than standard solar systems and up to 20 times more power (kWhrs) when in recovery mode. This technology is subject to several patents. This means it can be used for simple all year round domestic hot water systems or for more challenging heating & cooling, air conditioning and water treatment. (For specifications, see the technical & performance pages for more details).

• A solar collector is the energy producing component of a solar system. But the whole system is important as its design is crucial to you maximising your free energy input. We insist on being involved in the final design of our systems as we want them to be the most powerful and productive. For domestic installations, there are standard configurations, see below. Its important that the solar system you want to use has been modeled by government certification processes which use TRNSYS modeling.
• This means the WHOLE system has been modeled and Surface Power has TRNSYS certifications for USA, ASIA, NEW ZEALAND, CANADA, AUSTRALIA, ENERGY STAR and so on. Europe does not perform this level of testing on systems so it is practically impossible in Europe to compare solar systems which are only Europe based. But if the system you are looking at is exported to the USA or for ENERGY STAR where TRNSYS modeling is used, you can compare European collectors against each other.

• Diagram of a standard solar hot water system configuration

  Domestic System Configurations Solar Hot Water Systems Cylinder SP501 SOLAR MINI 160L SP501 SOLAR COMPACT 200L-250L SP501 SOLAR MIDI 300L SP501 SOLAR PRO 300L SP501 SOLAR PREMIUM 300L-400L SP501 SOLAR LUXURY 300L-500L Solar Central Heating Systems Solar central heating systems also do hot water but are all designed on a case by case basis, (they can be retrofitted to existing radiators or under floor systems) SP501 SOLAR CENTRAL HEATING Read Solar Central Heating Case Study Here SMART GRID Services   SP501 SMART GRID Services

MPPTt is one of several patented technology's that has been developed by Surface Power over the last 8 years. Simply speaking, it is a much more powerful way of getting power from a solar hot water system than the old style DTC (Differential Temperature Control) method. MPPTt allows up to 7 times more kWhrs to be produced at any given time as opposed to a legacy solar hot water system using DTC. MPPTt (thermal) is similar in concept to MPPT for Solar PV (electricity) in that a Surface Power Solar Hot Water system ignores the temperatures from the controller and is constantly maximising the kWhr transfer (power band) between the collectors and the heat exchanger or cylinder (maximum Delta T, typical 10C-20C using MPPTt even in cloud in normal mode & much higher in recovery mode). Legacy solar using DTC temperature settings of Delta T 3C-7C which is a very low power setting.

Click here to see an example of MPPTt in action, cloudy but bright day, approx. 8C outside temp..

MPPTt allows significantly more performance in a single day. It also is the reason why your Surface Power system still can produce energy in Fog, Rain, Bad Weather and Cloudy Weather. Its also the reason why it is currently the most powerful certified solar hot water technology in the world as confirmed by a 4th and 5th International government TRNSYS certification again in May 2011.

Please note that MPPTt is a patented technology developed by Surface Power and will only work on a Surface Power solar system. (NOTE: This is not because we won't make it available to legacy solar systems, its just that legacy solar systems managed by differential temperature controllers can not execute the Physics required called thermodynamic laminar solar flow which is another patented technology developed by Surface Power. This technology is one of the reasons our solar systems are able to run MPPTt. If you push a legacy solar hot water system into high power mode it stalls and goes into stagnation, stops working and could boil over as the water temperature difference will over power the pump. This is why legacy solar hot water has to operate at LOW Differential temperatures, LOW Delta T's and hence low power.)

MPPTt in normal mode during poor weather

MPPTt in BOILER mode after major depletion of the cylinder

Another example of MPPTt in recovery from our BLOG

Please read the MPPTt document in the technical section for a better understanding of MPPTt.

• All Surface Power solar systems can be ordered with SMART grid interfacing. This allows our support to remotely assess the ongoing performance of your system 24/7 and also allows you to visualise your system using your computer, iPhone or Ipad from anywhere in the world. Click on the image to the right to see an iPad interface of a Surface Power solar system.

This image is from Oct 2010. click on the image to open a large version.

All commercial, industrial and campus systems require connection to our MPPTt servers to provide maximum metered performance output. This is not required with domestic systems as MPPTt is built into all standard packages listed above.

See the ONLINE SMART GRID case study here

• System accessories are the additional components which are extremely important in the whole design of a solar system, examples are pre-insulated stainless steel pipework with UV protection, suitable solar cylinders, regulator pump stations and controller. You must use only components that are approved by us, If not, your system will perform less than it is capable of. If you are an approved installer, all our systems come as kits with the correct approved components from our distributors. If you have a component you wish to use, you can ask us to approve it. Our components are all high quality and made in Germany.

It is important you use the sizing packages listed on this page. You CANNOT use any solar design software to configure our packages or you will oversize the system NOR can you use normal rules of thumb.

Overheating: (Holiday Controls) MPPTt gives high performance at low temperatures and poor weather conditions BUT it is also designed to lower the power band at higher temperatures. As the water temperature climbs above 80C, the MPPTt process starts to reduce the power band. Typically, even on large systems with central heating, you do not need to install an overheating protection but we do recommend it in case you go on holidays.

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