September 16, 20196 yr Hi All Great forum! We currently renting and there's an old flat plate solar panel geyser on the roof. Interested to know if its piped correctly for the system to work efficiently? From brief research on the net and the hot pipe running into the cold side of the geyser I suspect it hasnt been done properly. Any feedback greatly appreciated Please see pics.
September 16, 20196 yr 1 hour ago, Rowan82 said: Interested to know if its piped correctly for the system to work efficiently? Nope, the pipes is connected wrongly. From the inlet of the geyser it should go to the bottom of the flat plate and then again from the top of the flat plate it should enter the geyser as high up as possible. If you look at the natural flow of heat and its tendency to move upwards, this system will let hot water in at the "Cold" lower side of the geyser, the hot water will then be cooled down by the cold water at the bottom of the geyser as it rises up, making the setup completely inefficient. Just above the position where the long pipe enters the geyser, you will see what looks like a safety valve. I will replace that with a double port safety valve (Banjo Valve) and connect the return line to the second unobstructed port. It re-enters the geyser to low right now. Those pipes should also be covered with some insulation/lagging. The losses over that 2 meter length on a cooler day would be substantial.
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