Solar panels on garage anyone?

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phkk

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Hi there...just wondering did anybody put solar panels on their garage,thinking of doing it-have seen it done but just wondering is it as good a job as the sales reps maintain?? how did you transfer the hot water,was it by pump...is that expensive?
just in case your wondering,couldnt put them on the dwelling house as its a dormer bungalow with gables and one of those is south facing.....
would love to hear back from people who did it/didnt do it....why not if thats the case,did you not think it was worth it?
 
Re: Solar panels on garage anyone???

The longer the run of pipe from your solar panels to your storage tank the less efficient it is going to be. You need to heat that long run of pipe first before it starts to heat up your water tank.
 
Re: Solar panels on garage anyone???

I am considering putting Panels on a garage also. As the garage is a new build I can position so that one side of the roof will be south facing. I am also considering putting a woodpellet boiler, hopper and water storage tank in the garage also and using the new insulated pipe to the house to minimise heat loss.
 
Re: Solar panels on garage anyone???

Builder ed, I was also considering doing the same as your self
but i find it is hard to justify the cost of the pipe from the garage to the house of nearly €2000 along with the buffer tank WPB and solar panels its a big investment and a long payback period
I have heard of a few different ideas of making your own insulated pipe from the garage to the house but i wonder how good they are
 
Re: Solar panels on garage anyone???

I got a quote for this insulated pipe of €37/M off Polytherm on Nass Rd (no connection). However I would be very interested if I could make up something to keep costs down
I am in a simialar situation and I want to put tank in garage and put solar panels on garage roof and run hot water from garage to house.
Any advice would be welcome
 
Re: Solar panels on garage anyone???

I used Microflex on my house from Keane environmental in Dublin. Charged €30 per metre about a year ago. No connection with this company.
 
Re: Solar panels on garage anyone???

phkk said:
,couldnt put them on the dwelling house as its a dormer bungalow with gables and one of those is south facing.....
Click to expand...

If there is any room on your roof you can always use the evacuated tubes as they are smaller. An East West layout is not best but is still ok.

Another solution is to use regular panels mounted on a frame that sits on the ground - south facing at your gable.
 
Re: Solar panels on garage anyone???

Someone suggested to me if the distance between the garage and the house was small to wrap the qualpex pipes with insulation and run through a standard 4in Service duct. My feeling is that particularly if using solar panels the heat loss has to be kept to a minimum so it might be worth investing in the Microflex pipe.
 
Re: Solar panels on garage anyone???

wrap the qualpex pipes with insulation
Click to expand...

I'm not sure I fully understand what you are trying to achive here, would the HW cylinder be in the Garage and the HW brought to the house, or the Panels be on the Garage and the Cylinder in the house with the solar loop running between the house and garage?

If it is the second, then Qualplex is out as it melts at the temp's involved in a solar instalation, you need to use either Copper or Stainless Steel pipe for the solar loop.

If on the other hand you intend bringing the HW supply over from the garage, then the qualplex insulated in 4in pipe is a potential solution. My gut feel is that nomatter how well you insulate it you will have to move a big slug of cold water out of the pipe when you get in the shower in the morning.

The only other solution is to install a circulating HW system, then you could run a pair of insulated pipes to / from the garage and have the HW running in a forced circulation system.

Just my 2c worth.
 
Re: Solar panels on garage anyone???

Sorry for the confusion Gtec. I am considering locating the Boiler, Cylinder and Solar Panels in the Garage. One quote that I received said that I will need a 4 way district pipe for DHW and heating circuits which is guaranteed for 50 years and loses only 1 degree every 100 metres. The down side is that it costs €76 + VAT!!. I had'nt considered the delay in getting hot water in the showers due to distance to cylinder. If I circulate the DHW will it get over that problem ? Will there be hot water heat loss if it is circulating constantly?
 
Re: Solar panels on garage anyone???

At a guess if they are recomneding a 4-way pipe they are talking about circulating DHW. That would be a feed and return fro the Heatings and another feed and return for the DHW.

knowing that the temp drop is 1degC per 100m is fine, but my gut feel would be that this is completly dependant on the flow rate through the pipe. if the water is not flowing then surley it will be getting progessivly colder.

To be honest I'm all out of knowledge at this stage, I have no knowledge or experience on circulating DHW, but am surmising what I think will happen.
 
Re: Solar panels on garage anyone???

builder ed
I am in the same position as you. can you let me know where you got the quote for this 4 way district pipe. I have 2 ufh heating circuits in the house and 2 DHW manifolds one for upstairs and one for downstairs. If I use a pressurised cyclinder or pressurise the hot water supply to the house would I still need the 4 way district pipe.
I assume this pipe is €76/M.
My thoughts were to run the UFH and DHw off two different tapping points on the cylinder and i would only need a supply/return for UFH. However with the long pipe runs to taps etc there may be a problem water cooling in the pipe.
 
Re: Solar panels on garage anyone???

aquatech in cork supply the insulated pipe your talking about, dont know what price, no connect, except that i found them very reasonable for underfloor pipes...
 
Re: Solar panels on garage anyone???

We were going to put solar panels on our garage roof, stove with back boiler in house and condensed oil boiler, but our plumber says this will be very expensive. has anybody got a similiar setup? He says solars on roof and back boiler in house isn't really an option. Would really like to hear if anybody has had similiar problems. thanks
 
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