nickcarol

I've looked at the forum search facility for solar heating but its either too technical or requires very good DIY skills. Basically, I've just bought a holiday villa in Almeria where I want to spend 5 months of the year during the UK winter. I would like a solar heating system to supply 2 bathrooms and top-up a hot tub. I'm not fussed about heating radiators etc and there's a gas cylinder boiler for kitchen hot water. So its just for baths/showers and topping up the hot-tub.
Please can someone recommend a solar powered system that I can buy and install without requiring a degree in electrical/mechanical engineering. I have an accessible flat roof available for the system and an unobstructed view of the sun.
If not a system to purchase then perhaps an Almeria solar heating engineer who can install a system at low cost.

EMR

Solar water heating during the winter is unlikely to be adequate unless you like lukewarm baths etc.
The sun does not always shine.
You will need an electric heater to act as a back up.
FrOm May to October its a different matter.

themajor

Try to find the very best that you can afford. The solar heat panels are not all the same and the good ones will give you lashings of HOT water in the winter as they are super efficient. We live in Cyprus which is not as hot as Spain and we have less sunsine as well Our two solar panels give HOT water in winter and in the hot summer months it is possible to make a cup of tea from the boiling water.

There must be some one in the area who knows a builder to install them. Yes you do need back up emersion heater. Last winter we turned ours on THREE times due to overcast rainy days.

Good luck.

tony

For heating water in the winter I recommend a vacuum tube system
we use them and get most of our yearly hot water

Cheers Tony

Mitzyboy

I looked in to this when we first moved to Spain and even with the high electricity costs I found that it would take me many years to cover the cost, and even then the system would not be adequate for our full needs.

We also looked at it for our pool, and found that with a bank of panels it would raise the water temperature by a couple of degrees and would have cost us thousands of euros.

We stuck with Iberdrola in the end