device to use unused soler pv export power to run heater or hot water

Lei_Chat

Apologies if I'm off topic but it seemed the most relevant thread with respect of my question.

We currently heat our hot water tank via a gas boiler for a total of 18 minutes each day, that seems to be enough to ensure it's hot for what we use.

We're looking to get Solar PV and one of the options is having the generated electricity heat your water tank via the emersion.
Is it still possible to do that with some sort of timer so it's only diverting the solar generated electricity for the required time?

I don't like the idea of the immersion being on for longer than is really needed. The other motivation of course is leaving the electricity available for other devices and pushing back on to the grid.

pinnks

DIY solutions and switches are of course possible if you have the know-how but devices like the Immersun which I have, or one of the numerous other similar devices on the market, send the excess you are producing over what you are using at that moment to the immersion and work well. You then let the immersion's thermostat do its job.

As you are unlikely to produce an excess of 3kW very often, these devices mean your immersion warms the water slowly over the day, probably using 1 to 1.5 kW at any time. There are quite a few threads on here discussing the devices. Search on immersun or iboost and you will find a few.

EricMears

Lei_Chat wrote: »

I don't like the idea of the immersion being on for longer than is really needed. The other motivation of course is leaving the electricity available for other devices and pushing back on to the grid.

Any immersion heater will switch itself off when the temperature of the water in the tank reaches the thermostat's set point.

glyndwr1998

Hi, new to the forum,

I would be very great ful if you could pm me with the information on the way to DIY the power divert to the immersion heater.

Many thanks, Anthony.

Hemel_Saint

Hi All / Legoman
I would also appreciate if someone could send me the details on the way to divert to the immersion heater.
Any help with drawings etc would be fantastic.

cheers all
Mark

ASavvyBuyer

Have a look at the devices available from REUK. We bought one from them for less than £30 which does the job well and is easy to connect into the existing immersion heater circuit. We also added a 2kw dimmer into the circuit to lower the consumption on days of poorer generation. (We have a less than 1.5kw element in the hot water tank).

legoman62

Hemel_Saint wrote: »

Hi All / Legoman
I would also appreciate if someone could send me the details on the way to divert to the immersion heater.
Any help with drawings etc would be fantastic.

cheers all
Mark

PM me, and I'll send you details and pics:)