Tubes

How Do You Stop Solar Thermal Overheating?

A question we get quizzed on when designing solar thermal is how do you stop solar thermal overheating?

This is an interesting challenge when designing solar thermal as you cannot turn off the sun. Another challenge is hot water as it is not always needed when the sun is at its strongest.

The best example of this would be a working family where the adults are out during the day and the children are at school, more than likely the showers will be out of sync to when the sun is at its most purposeful early in the morning or the evening.

The simple answer is good design and much bigger cylinder. It would be much bigger than what you would traditionally expect for a gas or electrically fuelled system.
This is because the cylinder acts like a big hydraulic battery, stock piling radiated thermal energy generated from sunny days which you can still use more than 24 hours later.
Viessmann have recognised this dilemma and massively helped the cause with the invention of their ThermProtect system which prevents the panels from overheating.

Here’s a short Video to explain how this works.

We are looking for new customers who are interested in solar thermal and potentially reducing their carbon footprint.
If this sounds like you, please call us or send us a message through our contact page.

We are passionate about helping people switch to renewable energy sources.

– Dean Dawe, Cloverleaf