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Solar Thermal -
Installation and Servicing
53 HanDing over
There is no day-to-day intervention required of the Ideal
Solar System. The system is completely automated and
requires no maintenance on the part of the end user.
However, most customers like to be informed about the
solar system and how to maximise it’s performance so
that they use as little fossil fuel for hot water production as
possible.
Therefore, the customer should be shown:
• How to access the temperatures for the solar cylinder
and solar collector panel. Some explanation of
maximum and minimum readings is recommended.
• How to check system operation during solar radiation,
the functioning of the flow meter on the pump station
and the symbol on the LCD display of the solar
controller.
• (If an un-vented cylinder is fitted). The position of
the manual reset thermostat and action to take if this
thermostat needs to be reset i.e. a solar competent
heating engineer should be called out to check the
source of the fault.
• The purposes of the pump station safety relief valve
and what action to take if steam or fluid is seen coming
from the end of this pipe i.e. a solar competent heating
engineer should be called out to check the source of the
fault.
unDer no circumsTances sHoulD THe capTure
conTainer be removeD
.
• The installation/user manual which should be left with
the end user.
• How to manage the boiler cylinder thermostat and time
clock so as to maximise the solar gain. Please see next
section.
maximising the output from the ideal solar system
If the solar system has been connected to a twin-coil cylinder, both
the boiler heating circuit and solar heating circuit can heat the solar
cylinder. The lower section of the cylinder is available for the solar
circuit, the upper section of the cylinder is available to the boiler circuit.
The solar heating circuit operates most effectively when it has the
largest volume of water to heat. Therefore, especially during the
summer months, Ideal strongly recommends that the boiler control
circuit is left off during the solar day (when the sun is likely to heat the
cylinder) so as to provide the solar circuit with as much temperature
increase as possible. The cylinder is well insulated and so will retain
its heat for a long time unless the water is run off at the points-of-use.
The building occupant’s lifestyle will determine the optimum settings
for the boiler controls.
The aim is to leave a reasonable volume of water in the boiler section
of the cylinder at a temperature which is warm enough to still provide
an adequate temperature at the points-of-use and cool enough to
obtain as much of the available solar energy as possible. Many
occupants find that they can often run on solar only during the summer
months.
However, the occupants should be warned about the risk of the
formation of legionella if the solar cylinder is not elevated to at least
55°C and preferably 60°C everyday. This facilitates the eradication of
the Legionella bacteria.
If the customers find that they have enough water available for
washing etc. during the morning and early afternoon period, one
ideal setting for example is to switch the boiler section of the cylinder
on everyday for an hour between 8 and 9 pm. This setting will make
sure the cylinder passes through the 55 to 60 °C once a day and also
provide the solar circuit with the maximum workload during the solar
day and facilitate stored water for early morning use.
Ultimately the customer should find their own optimum boiler timings
for DHW according to their needs.
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