Mounting Solar Thermal Collector Arrays
Actually mounting the solar collectors comes after you've completed the long process of planning and marking out their locations on the roof. Follow these guidelines to install your collectors:
Actually mounting the solar collectors comes after you've completed the long process of planning and marking out their locations on the roof. Follow these guidelines to install your collectors:
Before you can use a pressurized solar thermal system, you need to "charge" it with solar fluid (usually an antifreeze mixture of glycol and water) so that it has a heat transfer medium. There are three steps to the charging process:
When you're plumbing flat-plate collectors, you need to attach the incoming colder supply part of the solar loop to one end of the array, at the bottom. The outgoing hot part of the loop must exit at the other end of the array, at the top.
There are three steps to the charging process. Make sure you read and understand all three stages before starting the charging process.
There are three steps to the charging process. Make sure you read and understand all three stages before starting the charging process.
Although almost all urban installations opt for roof-mounted arrays, ground mounting is a popular alternative because it is much more flexible. The biggest advantage is that the installation location can be chosen for optimum solar output rather than relying on which way the roof happens to point.
If you decide to ground-mount your collectors you should be aware of the following factors:
Charging a high-mass solar thermal heating system is much like charging a pressurized system. However, flushing all the air out is more complicated if you're running a combination system: you will need to flush each individual circuit. Always keep at least one circuit open during this procedure.
In many cases, mounting the heat exchanger is one of the easiest parts of system installation, especially if you buy a pre-packaged kit; you just put the module on the storage tank and tighten a few unions. However, you may decide to construct your own heat exchanger from individual parts. In any case, the first step is to install the storage tank, then attach the exchanger.
All solar thermal systems need electric pumps to operate, except thermosiphon and ICS setups. However, you can't just plug the pump in and leave it running all the time. If you did, it would reverse the energy gathering process, dispersing stored heat through cold solar collectors into the night. The installation needs a control system to switch the pump on when there is heat to be gathered and off when there isn't.