Adding Solar pre heater for hot water

Anyone out there have a system like this? can not find anyone at all on line besides one company that gets horrible reviews, that makes and installs these pre heating systems. Since it’s in the cards, that both supply and delivery costs for gas will be skyrocketing (National Grid refusing to add new accounts in my area of Brooklyn) and ConEd also going up and up, I want to try every way possible to cut my utility bills. (yes have done new windows, better insulation and can not at this time do a fully solar building) Would appreciate any leads!

kimthorn10

in Heating and Cooling 6 years ago

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brooklyndempsey | 6 years ago

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We have two units and four floors, 6 occupants. I wish I had space for one or two more panels because we have no problem using the all the hot water from the three we have.
However if you really have a lot of free roof space I would also look at solar electric.
Regarding cost, the hardware isn’t very expensive, especially just for the solar panels, pump/control, pressure tanks, and a hot water tank—the labor for getting things installed and set up right is where the cost is. Properly pressurizing the system, flushing, and setting the right glycol concentration does require some experience and this as at least as important as price.
I will send you an email re contractors (I’m not sure of the rules either!).

kimthorn10 | 6 years ago

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if its allowed? you can reply to my email mjudgeny@gmail.com. I have one estimate for a 5 panel system coming in around 17K which was more than I wanted to spend….and unsure if its not overkill…

kimthorn10 | 6 years ago

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thank you, that is very through…I have plenty of roof space: may I ask how many floors/units you supply w. this system? and what contractor did you use? I can’t find anyone who knows a thing about these so far…..

brooklyndempsey | 6 years ago

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I had a system like this installed recently in my brownstone, and it works quite well.
We have three thermal solar panels installed on the roof, with a solar controller and pump which circulates fluid through the solar panels and into a heat exchange coil in the hot water tank. There is also a hot water condensing boiler, which can handle both domestic hot water and building heat.
The domestic hot water tank has two coils–the upper coil connected to the boiler, and the lower coil connected to the solar thermal system. When the system has enough solar energy, the domestic supply is purely solar heated, and the boiler kicks in to supply whatever additional energy is needed. We have a large (120 gal) hot water tank so it can store a significant amount of energy from the panels.
In our case the boiler, solar panels, water tank and controls were all manufactured by Viessmann. There are a number of reference designs for these systems in the manufacturers documentation.
We chose to install this instead of solar electric panels because we only had a limited amount of roof spa ce. Otherwise we would have gone electric. But the solar thermal system is effective.
In terms of installation, we did this as part of a full mechanical upgrade. It is pretty integrated into other building systems, and requires plumbing from the roof down to the boiler room. Also, you would want to select a mechanical contractor who is familiar with working on this type of setup.

RobertGMarvin

in Heating and Cooling 6 years ago

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These solar systems were the latest thing when I bought my house 45 years ago. I imagine they’re still good but, given limited rooftop space you might be better off with a solar system that generates electricity.