EVACUATED TUBE SOLAR HOT WATER PANEL (20 tube)
These top-of-the-range solar panel heat collectors are suitable for heating domestic hot water, swimming pools etc - even in the winter! One unit is adequate for an average household (3-4people), and it is modular, so you can add more if required. A single panel is sufficient for a 200litre cylinder, but you can fit 2 or more for high water usage, or for heating swimming pools or underfloor heating. Some types of renewable energy are only available in certain locations, however free solar heating is potentially available to almost every house in the UK! Every house should have one -really!
And with an overall efficiency of almost 80%, they are much more efficient than electric photovoltaic solar panels (efficiency of 7-15%). And if we compare them on a like-for-like basis, the price of an AES Solar Water Heater is around 30p/watt (compared to £6+/watt for solar photovoltaics!)
An assembled AES 20 tube standard panel and 10 tube high efficiency panel
PANELS NOW AVAILABLE EX-STOCK FROM Warehouse in UK
This high tech unit concentrates the sun's energy at the tip of the copper 'heat tube' - like a solid state magnifying glass!
The vacuum tube solar panel has been around for over 10years, and has proved to be reliable and dependable. The vacuum tubes consist of a double wall glass tube (made from strong borosilicate glass ie pyrex) with a space in the centre which contains the heat pipe. The sun's radiation is absorbed by the selective coating on the inner glass surface, but prevented from re-radiating by the silvered innermost lining. This is in effect like a one-way mirror which has been optimised for infra-red radiation. In fact it is very efficient, of the sun light's energy hitting the tube's surface, 93% is absorbed, whereas only 7% is lost through reflection and re-emission. The presence of the vacuum wall prevents any losses by conduction or convection - just like a thermos flask. Because of this, the system will work even in very low temperatures, unlike traditional flat plate collectors. This is why our system can be used to heat up water at the South Pole Antarctic Science Base - where ambient air temperatures can drop below -40°C
The heat transferred to the tip of the heat pipe is in turn transferred to a copper manifold in which water circulates to heat the domestic hot water tank. If a tube is placed in direct sunlight on a summer day, the tip temperature can reach 250°C - so the system easily heats domestic hot water cylinders to 60°C even in cooler weather! The manifold is heavily insulated with a 2" thickness of pre-formed rockwool to keep the heat in. Unlike flat plates, these headers are so well insulated that they should not require antifreeze in normal operation - the temperature of the header is unlikely to fall below 10°C even in very cold weather. The more advanced solar controllers include a low-temperature facility- should the temperature of the collector fall below a defined level, the pump will operate to allow the the water at the bottom of the tank to heat the collector slightly. In normal conditions, this would never be necessary - but it acts as a good safety margin.
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