Choice of intelligent switches ?

[Deleted User]

Sounds great with no need to ever change

mickyduck

Response re my immersion indicator light being on even though there is no power being diverted through my Solar Immersion. Im happy now unless I get a lot of responses form the experts on this forum saying this is B**L S**T

"Hi Michael,

This can happen if the Immersion heater has cut off because the water has reached its temperature or the Immersion heater has been manually switched off or disconnected. Thus leaving just the neon light connected cross the output and because the neons will work with less than 10uA of current it will light up from any residual currents. Please be assured that this is normal and the cost of residual current is negligible, typically less than 1 pence per year.

Regards

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ViksB

A quick question about the solarimmersion switch,
We had ours installed a couple of days ago and now have lovely piping hot water, and the mechanics of it seem to be working well, however even when the immersion has reached its temperature it still says that it is diverting to it? is that normal?
Thanks

greyteam1959

Mine says the same.
I've had mine for about 2 months now.
Brilliant when the sun shines & loads of hot water.
Cut gas water heating bill down to next to nothing !!!
Just wish I could use some of the spare electric after I have heated my tank of hot water.......

orrery

ViksB wrote: »

A quick question about the solarimmersion switch,
.... however even when the immersion has reached its temperature it still says that it is diverting to it? is that normal?
Thanks

When the immersion is up to temperature, its thermostat opens and disconnects it so it stops taking power. The Solarimmersion will still provide it with voltage, but no current flows. If the temperature falls, the thermostat switch closes, the immersion starts taking power and the Solarimmersion will start regulating the voltage it is providing so that the current that flows matches the surplus again.

ViksB

Thanks, I thought it was ok, but just wanted to check.

Vikki

old_grouser

The_Debt_Monkey wrote: »

I am looking at fitting a solarimmersion III switch to my system which is a 2.9kw system.

My question is i have a standard 3KW immersion heater in my hotwater tank. The solarimmersion websit says that with this switch there is no requirement to change my element. Is this correct? What has everyone else done? I was under the impression i'd need to change the element to a 1KW one?

Thanks in advance
Regards
Jon

Jon,
You've probably fitted something by now, but for those who haven't...
I fitted a Solar Immersion at the end of May. It's feeding my (20+ year old) 3kw immersion heater element and works perfectly well, and has become the main source of HW in the summer. On sunny days the water is hotter and there is more of it than on days when it is overcast. However, I've only had to boost the water 4 or 5 times (on days when the entire household wanted to pile into the showers at 7am).
(Incidentally, in my system the telltale light on the immersion heater switch in the airing cupboard glows proportionately to the amount of power being diverted. This seems to be a topic of interest on this board.)
Hope this helps,
OG :cool:

mickyduck

orrery wrote: »

When the immersion is up to temperature, its thermostat opens and disconnects it so it stops taking power. The Solarimmersion will still provide it with voltage, but no current flows. If the temperature falls, the thermostat switch closes, the immersion starts taking power and the Solarimmersion will start regulating the voltage it is providing so that the current that flows matches the surplus again.

So when there is no power being used by the immersion heater as the water is already up to temp is the surplus energy then exported to the grid as usual?

The reason I am asking is that in all this hot weather I have plenty of hot water for my needs and I am considering some air con which I could run using something like an optiplug ?

orrery

mickyduck wrote: »

So when there is no power being used by the immersion heater as the water is already up to temp is the surplus energy then exported to the grid as usual?

Guess so - if the current that you are pushing out of the solar PV isn't going anywhere in the house, then it must be being exported to the grid.

smudgersmiffy

Have had my SolarImmersion for a little under a month now, and it does exactly what it says on the tin. Very impressed with it.

With some crude working out (it's very difficult to get an accurate figure), I guess it'll take about 2-3 years to pay for.

I'll be interested to see how it performs in the winter when we're not producing much electricity!

At the moment, we're producing somewhere in the region of about 30kW per day, and the immersion is set for 70ºC.

The boiler hasn't switched on once since I got the SolarImmersion.