So now that the rains have stopped, and my ark has come to rest, I am able to finally get this solar hot water heater project complete. Enter Brad from Zon Solar.
Having now completed the job, I can whole heartedly recommend Zon Solar as an installer. They are very pleasant to work with, and have a great attention to detail not found often in contractors. They can be found at http://www.zonsolar.com
I opted for one step larger than the basic model with a larger panel and larger tank to the support the new jacuzzi tub.
So this is what we started with…
This is the panel before it gets mounted. 4foot x 10foot.
This is the panel mounted on the roof, just below the first 12 PV panels. For those that will notice, the panel seems crooked. Thats by design. At time you need to be able to drain the water from the panel, so it needs to be tilted to facilitate that.
And this is the new tank and controller assembly. It works partly as a conventional hot water heater, for days when the sun is not out, but as soon as the sun comes out, it starts saving me money! There is an upgrade for the controller, that lets me have a digital display to show status of the system. Its on the way, as well as a method to interface to this data for logging/etc. Coming soon.