Solar geyser doesn't work?

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supervegeta41

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So I recently purchased four solar geysers for my house and the tenants at the back. The company we bought it from showed us water that was boiling in the morning and claimed it was solely powered by the solar geysers. So we went ahead and installed them on Friday. Saturday morning the water was slightly warmer than the cold water and only at around four the was the water hot enough to shower in. Sunday however throughout the entire day the water was lukewarm at best. So do solar geysers actually work? Mine doesn't

Edit: The water is only powered by the solar tubes and the only thing that uses electricity is the pump.
 
Some don't... I've heard of ones that don't even have pipes in them. Just black tubes, with no way of water being able to go through them.
As with everything, you need a reputable supplier.

(also most of the good ones have electric backup, because no-one can make water hot for a 5AM shower in the middle of winter without good ole Eskom...)
 
supervegeta41 said:
So I recently purchased four solar geysers for my house and the tenants at the back. The company we bought it from showed us water that was boiling in the morning and claimed it was solely powered by the solar geysers. So we went ahead and installed them on Friday. Saturday morning the water was slightly warmer than the cold water and only at around four the was the water hot enough to shower in. Sunday however throughout the entire day the water was lukewarm at best. So do solar geysers actually work? Mine doesn't

Edit: The water is only powered by the solar tubes and the only thing that uses electricity is the pump.
Click to expand...

I have noticed that if I am home it doesn't heat up all that well because you use some warm water before it boils. But when I go to work with no one drawing warm water and come back my water sits at 70 to 80 degrees in the summer. If there is someone at home that needs to draw warm water it is going to be a problem. It only heats one tank a day.
 
My solar geyser came with a control panel that would indicate the temp in the panels and geyser. On a hot summers day the temp in the panels were over 80 degrees.

The way the system works is that it will monitor the temp in the geyser and the panel. When the water in the panel is 7 degrees higher than the water in the geyser, it would pump this water back into the geyser until the temp in the panel is just below the temp in the geyser. It will cycle through this process until eventually the temp in the geyser is at the set maximum.

My geyser would heart up from 40 degrees to 65 degrees in Leeds than am hour on a good day.
 
Depending on where you are, JHB was quite cloudy over the weekend. Solar implies Sun. So yes, in the morning it will be quite cooler than what it would be at 12 or 4 in the afternoon. If you don't have electricity backing it up, prepare for cold showers in the morning.

I'm also assuming you have a heat blanket/insulation on the geysers to help reduce the rate at which they lose their hot water capability? It also depends when you use the water, so if you shower at night, the cold water will refill the tank, no sun to heat up the water, which means cold water in the morning.
 
richjdavies said:
Some don't... I've heard of ones that don't even have pipes in them. Just black tubes, with no way of water being able to go through them.
As with everything, you need a reputable supplier.

(also most of the good ones have electric backup, because no-one can make water hot for a 5AM shower in the middle of winter without good ole Eskom...)
Click to expand...

Ever heard of heat pumps? Sure it uses a bit of electricity but it's cheap compared to the direct eScum route and with a proper inverter and fully solar charged batteries say bye bye to eScum. .
 
It extracts heat from the air and inserts it into the water. Even air at 5 degree C is packed with therms.

It's basically a reverse air-con. Uses the Carnot cycle. The heat pump uses electricity to power a compressor, fan and water pump. About two heat units per electricity/heat unit, so it uses about a third of the power it would take with a kettle element in your geyser.

I've had one for nearly five years now. Works great.
 
One get different models, which one you got?
Is it facing north.
Show me a pic of the installation.
Link to the manual pls.
 
One get different models, which one you got?
Is it facing north.
Show me a pic of the installation.
Link to the manual pls.
 
Yup of course - sun needed! and installation VERY VERY important.

PS - those temperature gauge devices are the same deal -- work great if installed right. Otherwise utterly useless sometimes even counter productive. I've stayed at a place where that gauge read 80 degrees but the water was cold, and 40 degrees but the water was piping hot.
 
Arthur said:
It extracts heat from the air and inserts it into the water. Even air at 5 degree C is packed with therms.

It's basically a reverse air-con. Uses the Carnot cycle. The heat pump uses electricity to power a compressor, fan and water pump. About two heat units per electricity/heat unit, so it uses about a third of the power it would take with a kettle element in your geyser.

I've had one for nearly five years now. Works great.
Click to expand...

Global cooling?
 
Ours work beautifully! One of the best investments we've made to our property.
Ours is north-facing and gets sun right through the day. On a good day it takes the geyser temperature up to nearly 80c, and with it only being me and the female one, this works great for us.
It took a bit of an adjustment from a timing perspective to get the most out of it, but it works really well for us.
 
srothman said:
Ours work beautifully! One of the best investments we've made to our property.
Ours is north-facing and gets sun right through the day. On a good day it takes the geyser temperature up to nearly 80c, and with it only being me and the female one, this works great for us.
It took a bit of an adjustment from a timing perspective to get the most out of it, but it works really well for us.
Click to expand...
Mind sharing your supplier ?
 
supervegeta41 said:
So I recently purchased four solar geysers for my house and the tenants at the back. The company we bought it from showed us water that was boiling in the morning and claimed it was solely powered by the solar geysers. So we went ahead and installed them on Friday. Saturday morning the water was slightly warmer than the cold water and only at around four the was the water hot enough to shower in. Sunday however throughout the entire day the water was lukewarm at best. So do solar geysers actually work? Mine doesn't

Edit: The water is only powered by the solar tubes and the only thing that uses electricity is the pump.
Click to expand...

take some pictures of the unit... chances are it is not installed properly
 
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