Thermodynamic Hot Water Systems - anyone?

Happygreen

Hi, Does anyone have a system from [Thermodynamic Hot Water Systems/B] - solar panels for water heating? I've asked for a rough guide how much one of these costs and of course can't get anything out of them unless they come to the house. I just want a rough idea as most times these home visits are costing time, money and nerves....
If you have it, are you happy with it?

theboylard

Not saying don't do it, but any company that won't give ball park numbers without getting through your front door - just stear cleer of even if it is the deal of the century!

Personally I can't see the point - it provides hot water - and hot water only unless you go bigger when it can be used to possibly heat your house.

It's been "temporarily suspended from MCS registration" for 5 years, so no RHI or FiT help, why would a scheme be suspended for that long if it were a proven cost effective technology?!

The amount of plumbing work involved is complex and will be a large part of the cost and potential maintence, but from one page that I won't link to publicly (but if you message me I'll happily pass the link on) it gives a cost example for a 53kw single panel hot water system of £4500.
I've found another page which suggests £5k for a single panel system, with £8 to £10 per month electric running costs, plus it does need maintenance with anode replacement being at least a bi-annual cost.

You are seriously nudging solar PV territory there.

If you have the space, then the average cost currently of £5.5k for a 4kw'ish system.
This will give a reduction on how much electricity you use, you'll get a 20 year FiT that pays you quarterly based on your generation & export and the only likely maintenance will be an inverter replacement, which will likely be covered by warranty as they are getting longer (new SolarEdge WaveHD inverters come with 20 year warranty now.)

You can heat your hot water (if you have a hot water tank with immersion heater) and admittedly only during daylight hours, using a simple diverter for £2-300 approx.
Our boiler goes off from early-mid April to late September early October, all our hot water needs are more than covered in that time unless we have a run of crappy weather.

Keep asking questions, it's the only way to be sure

zeupater

Happygreen wrote: »

Hi, Does anyone have a system from [Thermodynamic Hot Water Systems/B] - solar panels for water heating? I've asked for a rough guide how much one of these costs and of course can't get anything out of them unless they come to the house. I just want a rough idea as most times these home visits are costing time, money and nerves....
If you have it, are you happy with it?

Hi

Have a look at this previous discussion thread ....

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4205509

... it's a few years old, but the technology can't have changed much ...

HTH
Z

sevenhills

A friend of mine has it, and he is not impressed. You want the hot water mostly on an evening, when the Sun is going down.
Unlike solar panels, which when not being used, the generated electricity can be fed into the grid for some ££s.

zeupater

zeupater wrote: »

... it's a few years old, but the technology can't have changed much ...

Hi

Here you go, test results conducted a couple of years after my conclusions raised in the thread referenced above. The results tend to fully support those conclusions, including the COP being close to 1.0 in low irradiation conditions, which of course, would include overnight! ...

http://www.narecde.co.uk/thermodynamic-panel-data/

HTH:cool:
Z

zeupater

sevenhills wrote: »

A friend of mine has it, and he is not impressed. You want the hot water mostly on an evening, when the Sun is going down.
Unlike solar panels, which when not being used, the generated electricity can be fed into the grid for some ££s.

Hi

Whichever renewable energy solution is installed (Thermodynamic, PV, Solar Thermal), DHW storage addresses that issue ...

HTH
Z

JessicaPa

Hi, I'm quite new on here so firstly hello ! I only know a little about renewable energy systems, but it is my understanding that these systems can be especially beneficial to people who are using oil to heat their water. I guess the success of an installation is very dependent on picking firstly, the right system and having the correct surveys and pre-installation checks.