| The Comments |
There's a load of stats about efficiency of solar heating for UK but has anyone researched the benefits in Spain, beyond anecdotal or intuitive levels?
0
Like
|
Nowadays insulation should be the first thing to get right in a building becaue the better your insulation the less heat required to maintain a comfortable temperature .
It does not make sense to keep upgrading the heating system if it goes straight out through the walls ans windows
0
Like
|
About 15 years ago I bought a solar panel to heat the water. It was about 100 ltrs. The system I had was that when the water reached 78C it automatically stopped working so there was not loss of water (blow off).
I was in the house for two years and was so impressed that I hardly ever needed to use the immersion heater in the tank, that when I moved to a penthouse I bought another unit.
That was 12 years ago. I am delighted with it.
Sorry I cannot give you precise details as I on holiday in Penang for three months, so cannot access my records.
PS have found a letter which I sent to Sur in English:
The Editor,
Sur in English,
8th August, 2001.
Dear Ms Liz Parry,
A few years back I changed houses and decided I would 'do my bit' for the environment. Following advice from The Million Tonne Club, who are trying to encourage people to save the planet by reducing greenhouse gases, I decided to install a solar panel for my hot water supply. They recommended the Ethanol Heat Pipe. I must admit I was doubtful that it would be worth the expense and if it would be as efficient as was claimed. The installation proved to be very simple.
After almost three years, I am selling my house. One of the priorities on my list for my new home was the possibility of being able to install a solar panel. In almost three years, with the exception of the few days when it has been raining or very overcast for more that a day or two, when I used the built-in electric heater, the panel has supplied all my needs for hot water.
Having now found a new property, I contacted the Million Tonne Club and was pleased to hear that they will shortly be putting together another group buy.
As people who know me will confirm, this is not a publicity trick and I have not been solicited to write this letter. The Million Tonne Club can be contacted at.:- milliontc@mercuryin.es
0
Like
|
We have had solar hot water for the past 7 years and we think it is one of the best things we ever bought!!
0
Like
|
We have been using Solar hot water for 3 years now it was instaled in the property when we bought and it has been briliant,so good that we decided to purchase a Solar heating panal the write up on it was impresive andwe fell for it ,but on instalation it proved USLESS only blowing luke warm air and not raising the temp by evan 1deg.
We are hoping to get our money back but do not hold out much hope in Spain.
We would warn anyone thinking of getting one to ask for a trial run first.
_______________________
Benow
0
Like
|
Thanks for than be the posts - I was really wondering if anyone has compared ground source with air source heat pumps or integrating vacuum tubes with a HP.
0
Like
|
How do you insulate these Spanish apartments??
0
Like
|
The efficiency of a heat pump will depend upon the difference between the feed (outside) temperature and the delivery (inside temperature). The closer they are together, the higher will be the efficiency. Generally for the sort of temperature differences you probably experience you could expect on a good quality system, 3:1 on an air fed system and 4:1 on a ground source system. That is because the ground is always warmer than the air, in winter and therefore you can expect a lower temperature difference between the feed and the delivery.
The amount of sun falling on every square metre of the earth’s surface is known as the insolation. It obviously varies widely, but the peak average in Spain is between 1.9kWh/m2/day (daylight hours only) in the winter and 7.1 kWh/m2/day (daylight hours only) in the summer. Since you are talking about the heating cycle, you will be looking at the lower figure for solar heating. If you need say 40 kWh to heat your property during daylight hours you would need somewhere between 20 to 30 square metres of vacuum tubes (depending upon efficiency and other factors) to provide sufficient heat and then it won’t work after dark and you will need to resort to other means of heating. There would also be a danger of freezing the water in the vacuum tubes if the external temperatures were low.
Sorry to make this complicated, but in my opinion, coupling heat pumps with any solar device is a waste of time, but given the space, ground source is a great idea, failing that air source is a good alternative.
0
Like
|
thanks Xetog - a heating engineer's name if ever there was one. Not complicated at all, very well put.
If we buy the particular part built house we have in mind then a HP will almost certainly be used so the learning curve has just started to climb - that ground source energy would (probably) be better than air source hadn't occured to me as I just assumed there's plenty of air and it's usually warm [during recent cold snap we had +3 as lowest temp]. The house is located on aluvial deposits in a wide river valley, there's already a pozo so going downwards shouldn't need a rock bit, also there's plenty of space for trenches. Do let me know if you have any other tips or pointers. Thanks
0
Like
|
Hi Furoner. Except for my own air to air heat pumps in our Spanish apartment my experience is in the UK. Also, I have been retired from a large consultancy practice for 4 years now, so my knowledge is not 100% up to date. Undoubtedly a heat pump system is going to be the most economic way of heating / cooling using electricity. Ground source is the best if you can afford it as the soil is consistently warmer than the air in winter (in the UK it's 10 degrees C even when the air temperature is below freezing) and cooler than the air in summer. It is usually considered that boreholes are better than subsurface coils, but far more expensive due to the required depth and the ground gets warmer, the lower you get. For residential purposes subsurface couls are generally the right soiution and can be excavated by digger rather than the expensive drilling rig required for bores. Finally, great care has to be taken with boring as it generally held to be potentially contaminating if aquafers are penetrated. I am quite happy to discuss these matters with you if you PM me.
M.
0
Like
|
Any suggestions for insulating existing Spanish block walls? Some are the large concrete blocks and some are the smaller pottery type.
_______________________
www.finditfme.com The new, advanced way to find what you are looking for.
0
Like
|
haha best thing move somewhere warmer where it dont get cold
0
Like
|