Solar Heating System Phase II
Winter is coming, time to install phase II of the RED C Villas solar heating system
A month ago the pool temperature started to drop dramatically as the winter approached. The weather is still comparable to a mild English summer’s day but the water temperature had started to become a bit bracing. Time to install phase II of the solar heating system.
A few important lessons had been learnt from the original system. Firstly, don’t trust your Dahab joiner to follow any drawings as he may build whatever he thinks is best! Solution is a new joiner and the a lot of input from us. Result – perfection! This time the frame is set at a slight angle to allow water run off and ease of cleaning and all the glass abutts each other so there is no build up of dirt between the panes.
New inspection panel which allows easy access
There is also an inspection panel which means you can easily get access to the pipe joints in case they spring a leak. This was a frequent occurrence on the old system due to the quality of the jubilee clips rather than the high grade steel ones on the new system, which we bought out from the UK. Now we only have to move a small piece of glass to get access rather than the huge piece we had to move before.
Better hose pipe quality for the solar heating system
We have improved the quality of the hose pipe, previously we used rubber pipe which frequently split because of the high water pressure and the degradation from the sun. Now we use silicone hose pipe. However, because only white silicone piping is available here this had to be stained with a mixture of black paint and benzene.
This seemed to work adequately in tests carried out previously. Only time will tell, but fingers crossed, it won’t start peeling off in a couple of months!
In addition to all of this we have added a couple of solar pods, again bought out from England, which feed into the black piping. They seem to work quite well and also look pretty high-tech.
Conclusion …
So, with all this effort and expense does the new solar heating system work? In a word, no. Yes we are producing hot water going into the pool but all the heat gain made is lost overnight. We are now left with the one solution we didn’t want to do and that is putting a cover on the pool at night. We are working on a design at the moment that won’t be too ugly or intrusive and that can be completely removed in the summer months. Hopefully this will provide us with a warm swimming pool in the cooler months and good news will follow in the next blog.
Till next blog,
Steve
