any recommendations for a hot water tank that i can do a solar panel direct to element system on?
mines just started leaking so its a bit of a rush job as i was hoping to do it in a few years time.
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PV is ….?
Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.
yeah, electric solar panel wired to a heater element rather than the water panels circulating the water.
traderstu:
I stumbled across this recently, is this the type of thing you're after?
"Green Heat provides an affordable solution to save energy usage in homes with smart control and direct photovoltaic (PV) solar water heating"
thats the fancy version.
cheap version is you use a standard element (matched to the panel) wired direct to solar panel (with thermomost of course). i'm not sure on the tank. at the moment i'm looking at getting a two element tank. but i'm not sure if they use two thermostats. the idea being is to use solar on one element and the stock ripple controlled on the other.
With PV hot water, the best option is a heat pump hot water cylinder. In Australia there are heaps of competitors selling this combination as it pays for itself rapidly, but for some reason that is not a common thing in NZ. Just putting PV power into a normal hot water cylinder takes much longer to pay for itself, despite the much higher initial cost of the heat pump cylinder.
fe31nz:
With PV hot water, the best option is a heat pump hot water cylinder. In Australia there are heaps of competitors selling this combination as it pays for itself rapidly, but for some reason that is not a common thing in NZ.
A quick google scan shows there are both Federal and state government subsidies available for HW heat pumps in OZ, https://www.energy.gov.au/rebate-topic/hot-water
I suspect its something to do with customers being exposed to global pricing for LNG and coal...
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