Case Studies - (Solar Thermal Systems)

Solar Energy System Installations

Case Study 1

A Farm House In Rural Lancashire.

Mr & Mrs M wanted to explore the possibilities of installing Solar Thermal to generate domestic hot water, since their farm house was not piped for gas and they were using electricity to generate hot water. Solar 7 undertook a site survey and concluded that the customer would benefit from Solar Thermal. We recommended two options, the first involved integrating the Solar Thermal in to the existing hot water storage tank since the existing tank was relatively new. The second option, which was more expensive, but more efficient, included replacing the existing hot water storage tank with a Thermal Store Solar hot water system. After consulting us and doing his own homework the customer chose the Thermal store as this was the most efficient system. The system took three days to install and has been providing hot water even on winter days.

Case Study 2

A modern 4 bedroom detached house in Manchester.

In the summer of 2006 Mr H asked us to quote for replacing his current Solar Thermal system. The system was less than 2 years old and carried a 3 year warranty when first installed, but the customer had recently purchased the property and therefore inherited the Solar hot water system. The customer recognised that the system was not producing anywhere near the amount of hot water that it should and therefore contacted the company who originally installed the system. The company who originally installed the system refused to carry the warranty to the new owner and reported that they would charge to rectify the system. Mr H called Solar 7 and we inspected the system and made our report. Essentially we found that due to a number of basic installation failures the system could not function properly and the electrical wiring was hazardous. We quoted for carrying out the work to rectify the system and the customer asked us to carry out the work. The system took two days to install properly and has been providing excellent quantities of hot water ever since.

Case Study 3

A Dairy in North Wales.

Not your average installation. Mr G wanted to install Solar Thermal for use in a dairy. After each milking session the dairy equipment has to be cleaned and washed down with piping hot water, 7 days per week, 365 days per year. (Apparently cows don't get Christmas day off, nor do farmers). The existing system used electricity to heat around 250 litres of hot water every day and because the hot water was to be used for cleaning purposes it was imperative that a Solar Thermal system could reach a desired temperature of around 78 degrees. Additionally the existing hot water storage tank was built in to a wall and therefore could not easily be removed, this meant that any system had to be integrated with the existing storage tank. The milking shed held around 300 cows and therefore had a large roof surface, which allowed us to install a number of large panels to ensure that enough hot water could be generated, even on winter days. The system had to be over engineered in order to generate sufficient hot water, but in turn it meant that it could produce hot water that was dangerously hot on summer days. This presented a risk of "stagnation" where the system becomes too hot and can actually boil dry. The safety and reliability of our workmanship and products is paramount, so as an additional safe guard we installed a thermostatic control system to monitor the temperature of the water and bypass it, through a motorised valves, to external radiators if the water became too hot. It has been in operation in the dairy since early 2006 and has reliably provided energy efficient hot water every since.