Well, it lasted a little more than 8 years, never really performed the way it was sold to us and the cost to replace the storage tanks forced us to make an unfortunate decision, take the system out!
The 6 modules and 240 gallons of stoarge capacity was designed to offer some space heating and the majority of our domestic how water. It did the later with efficiecny, it didn't even come close to doing the former. The system cost nearly 39K to install, required some additional tree removal a year after installation but never really provided much space heating. (We have a radiant hydronic floor inside a 2 inch gypcrete pour topped by ceramic tile.)
The last two years we never even attempted using the Solar thermal storage to heat the floor. Since the susytem was designed co-mingled, the DHW seemed to remove to much energy to keep the temps up high enough to send into the floor. The contrcator, IPS, could have been more forth coming, but they never really explained to us that the tanks and like all hot water tanks, they can corrode from the inside. Ours lasted 8 1/2 years, and were warranted for 5! Fine, but the replacement cost was $6K!!!
So, we tore the system out and donated the modules to the Midwest Renewable Energy Association. We could add more solar PV but will be buying Renewables directly from our utitlity for the remainder of our energy consumption.
The 6 modules and 240 gallons of stoarge capacity was designed to offer some space heating and the majority of our domestic how water. It did the later with efficiecny, it didn't even come close to doing the former. The system cost nearly 39K to install, required some additional tree removal a year after installation but never really provided much space heating. (We have a radiant hydronic floor inside a 2 inch gypcrete pour topped by ceramic tile.)
The last two years we never even attempted using the Solar thermal storage to heat the floor. Since the susytem was designed co-mingled, the DHW seemed to remove to much energy to keep the temps up high enough to send into the floor. The contrcator, IPS, could have been more forth coming, but they never really explained to us that the tanks and like all hot water tanks, they can corrode from the inside. Ours lasted 8 1/2 years, and were warranted for 5! Fine, but the replacement cost was $6K!!!
So, we tore the system out and donated the modules to the Midwest Renewable Energy Association. We could add more solar PV but will be buying Renewables directly from our utitlity for the remainder of our energy consumption.
