News ¦ Rates ¦ Portfolio ¦ Client Feedback ¦ FAQ's ¦ Useful Guidelines ¦ Useful Links                              

 Solar Heating



Does It Really Work?

A report by: Nizhad Salehi
Date: 26th June 2007

For many months now there has been continuous media on low carbon building programme. They say that
sooner or later we are going to run out of the fuels we commonly use, and due to this, prices for electricity
and gas and other fuels will rise. I have been curious for some time now, if solar heating does what it
actually says it does on the cover of brochures and other advertisings as such. In today’s market
unfortunately it’s all about big signs of sales and small writings which trick you into a contract which you have
no idea of, what you’re getting for your money.

I’m not a person who is easily convinced without pure factual evidence, so for me this was a case of research,
theory and then theory into practise. During my research I found out that a lot of countries in the
Mediterranean such as Spain use solar domestic hot water in commercial properties such as hotels, they rely
solely on solar domestic hot water with no back-up power source, due to the amount of sun light they
retrieve, the solar panels presumably give enough heat to the cylinders to have sufficient amount of hot
water during the day, however if you find your self to be the last person to take a shower in the evening, you
may end up with cold water.

The research however was not enough to convince me to let alone inspire me to convince our customers. I
and a couple of my colleagues went to Alpha’s solar domestic hot water course to find out how they are
installed and how they work. During the course day, the Alpha engineer took us through the introduction of
the product, how they worked, how they were installed, what precautions needed to be taken, and pretty
much all aspects one is to know about solar installations in general.

Once we were done with all the paper work, the Alpha engineer took us out to see how it actually worked in
practise. On the day of the course it had been quite cloudy all day but there was some sunlight during the
morning, so I had this in mind before making any sort of conclusion on the system. The Alpha solar system
was only for a combination boiler so the cylinder relied solely on the solar panel to heat it up (like a direct hot
water cylinder). When I looked at the digital temperature reading, to my amazement it showed it at sixty four
degrees centigrade, I was still to a certain level in disbelief until I touched the cylinder which was so hot I had
to remove my hand off of it immediately.

Despite the fact that the Alpha solar system was only for a combination boiler and only had a ninety litre
capacity, it would have been enough hot water for any domestic combination property with one bathroom. It
really made me think about how much one could save during the summer time with a solar system, obviously
the bigger the cylinder the more hot water you can get from it.

Many brochures will tell you that solar panels can provide from fifty to seventy percent of your hot water
annually, I think they might have gone over the top with that statement and in all honesty it’s a lie, however
even with our bad weather which we never seem to be able to predict I think with a solar domestic hot water
system we could get around thirty five to forty percent of our annual hot water for free.

Conclusion

If you have the money to put in a solar domestic hot water heating system I strongly recommend that you do.
In my professional opinion I think that the solar domestic hot water system can provide up to eighty percent
of your hot water demands during the summer period. I have listed a few reasons why I think if you have the
money you should invest;

- Freedom from rising energy prices.
- Increase in property value.
- Tax advantages and government incentives.
- Active contribution to climate and environment protection.
- Conservation of fossil resources.
- Reliable supply of energy.