Gymbal

Does anyone have the above? Does it really save money on water? How many years to pay back? Either DIY or installed?

Does anyone have figures for pre installation use and after?

Just want the real side not the propaganda.

Oh yeah in the UK or equivalent latitude.

Cheers

Diesel

As I have taken to washing my hands in cold water now - saves theCombi switching on and warming the pipes - I started asking around too.

Know little yet, so cant help , but I doesnt work on 'received' heat from the sun - its is clevererthan that. Kind of like air con in reverse Ibelieve?

D

Skoobie Dhu

iTrader: (3)

If it's for hot water only then the payback is probably min 15 years even on a DIY install. If you can use the solar for central heating (underfloor heating, not enough heat for rads) then the payback could be much less.

I started this thread on the Navitron forum - excellent site run by manufacturer of all sort of alternative energy stuff.

Will I save money?

I might still try the DIY install as a project, circa £1.5k for large tank and 2 large panels, I was quoted £5k for a similar system installed (Scottish grant would reduce this by 30%).

Allan

iTrader: (1)

^^ interesting site that...thanks.

dpb

almost purhased a house with this pre-installed - like the dumb **** i am i didnt take it

- hot water at the end of the day when ever it was reasonably sunny

GC8

Id honestly be surprised if it will ever pay for its self; let me elaborate. My girlfriend and I stayed at her parents holiday villa/flat in Cyprus in May this year. This relies on solar water heating, as most houses there do. If all thsat you want is a shower each at night itll pretty much let see you through, but even with in the blistering Mediterranean sun we still had to use the immersion heater. August in Kyrenia will be even hotter its true, but May there is far hotter than we ever manage in England...

Gymbal

Already had a good read of Navitron and others, they do seem the cheapest. My calculations look at 3-5 years in the Isle of Man (62p per litre oil)

Any real experiences in the UK?

Skoobie Dhu

iTrader: (3)

3-5 years on what basis?

My 15 years estimate based on a diy install @ £1500 was probably optimistic.

There's loads of threads on Navitron and no-one ever claimed anything near 3-5 years.

If you think you can get a return in that time I suggest you get on with it and good luck.

Torquemada

Someone came to my dads door trying to sell him this cr@p. He made the guy selling it look like an idiot as, just going through the costs normally, it was fairly obvious that it would take an eternity to actually be worth it. Oh yeah and, as said, it's hardly the sunniest round these parts.

Skoobie Dhu

iTrader: (3)

Dave, there's a zillion variables, best thing you can do is head over to the Navitron forum and browse some of the posts over there.

unclebuck

My place has it. But it was already installed when I moved in.

Works a treat. On a summer's day you get a tank full of 70C water. You can draw from it almost constantly and it will stay at that temperature. On an average day of sun and cloud you will still get a tank full of 40+C. Even a bright sunny winter day will give a good tank full.

From begining of May to the end of September I rarely need to use the electric to assist. Maybe a handful of days.

dpb

yep thats more or less the experince my g.parents had with their system which was there when they bought the house in 1973 ...?

Torquemada

Cool, at least sounds as though some systems can be good in the UK then.

I reckon there must be a lot of companies out there just trying to scam people though.

Skoobie Dhu

iTrader: (3)

Here's a thread from the Navitron site that discusses payback - and a example quoted from the thread.

200 Years to Recoup Solar Panel Cost

'I would add that I've had solar thermal panels for the last 6 months and been quietly doing some back of envelope calculations about my savings.

My installation cost around £3500 all-in.
I'm saving an average of about 10kWh of water heating per day - summer months.
So, that is about 1800kWh per year - say 2000 to keep the sums easy.

I have a modern gas condensing boiler, with my marginal cost of gas currently 1.99p/kWh. About to go up to about 2.5p/kWh. If I assume an overall system efficiency of 75%, I am saving a grand total of ..... £53 per year. So my simple payback is about 66 years. If I had left the money in the bank, I could get about 4% net or £140 per year.

BUT... If I were on Oil at about 6.5 p/kWH I'd save £130 per year or so, or if on electric at 12p/kWh I'd save £240 per year.

So they are kind of right......I do note that most of the quoted savings (by solar panel sellers) do relate to electricity savings, and assume that people use eleccy to heat their hot water in the summer.'

zip106

A customer of mine have just had this installed in a new build house they've built.

They have got about 6 acres of land that the pipes snake around though!

Ground Collective Heat Pumps | Greenfuel4.co.uk

It's a large 4 bed house with basement and this heating system should give enough hot water for 3 baths, 3 loads of washing machine, dishwasher per day.
I know they've got under floor heating running off this also, but I assume there's a back-up heating system 'just in case'.

Skoobie Dhu

iTrader: (3)

Zip, ground source with underfloor heating on a new build is the way forward. Likewise, mate of mine installed this on his new house, either 4 or 5 bedrooms. Cost him £4.5 for the pipe coils and heat pump, and another £4.5k for the underfloor heating. Doesn't need a huge amount of land, his trench is something like 50 metres long and 2 metres deep by 2 metres across. There's half a kilometre of coiled pipe in the trench.
It works a treat, only cost to run is the electric for the heat pump (depends how hard it has to work) and it doesn't need a back up.
You can install a vertical heat pump if you don't have the space but the borehole needs to be 50 to 70 metres deep and I've been quoted £5k for the borehole.
You need to use underloor heating though as the heat of the water output is about 35 deg C.

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Isnt there an issue with Ground recovery that if its a cold winter, you draw the heat from the ground which allows the cold to penetrate deeper and permafrost your garden ?

Mog

With ground source heating it is far easier to have a bore hole type of installation especially if you don't have the land area.
As far as solar for heating is concerned you will get around 60% of your hot needs over the year.

Mog