ray2gill

Our builder is recommending a Solarhart 302L HWS. My question is will this be sufficient to provide all the hot water for a family of 4 adults and a small child?

Any info would be very much appreciated.

Thanks,
Gillian

madsad

We have solar water heating,which is great during the summer-constant hot water,but as its winter at the mo we need to have the water heating switch on continually (roughly about 3months out of the year)

Donna.

youngy73

that should be fine unless you camp in the shower. they have a booster switch which means it then operates like a conventional hot water system should it go cold.

Vegemite Kids

We've just recently replaced our Solar hot water system (at a cost of $2800) with a Chromagem system and even though its nearly the end of July, we havent had to use the electric booster. It seems to be an extremely efficient system.

Centurion

I wouldn't go for that model. I think its got the tank on the roof. We've a Chromagen and the tank sits under the roof which means you only have the panels showing which is much more pleasing to the eye.

temptininnit

What is the total install cost for a solar system?

Are there new rebates available?

PoppetUK

Going to tag along on this one as we are interested in the solar heating systems as the house we are buying has it.

NickyC

We are 4 adults, have a 400 litre tank and it's fine. I don't know if we'd cope with only 305 litres, though.

Our system is a Dux - it has three sleek cool-looking panels on the roof and just a normal water tank at ground level, so no ugly tanks on the roof or in the roof-space. It works really well.

Timber Floor Au

Gday Gill,

My 1st post back on here in over 2 years lol.
We have the Rheem solar water heater, on a new house we built and moved into 2 months ago.

Its bloody awesome, and easily heats enough water for us guys. 2 adults 3 kids , and numerous pommy guests

Steve

snappy

We've been looking into this one recently and I have been told a couple of things that I wasn't aware of until questioning a few people.

The closed in systems means the water doesn't run around the panel itself thus making them better due to no build up of any minerals in the pipelines over the years.

The ones that sit on the floor require a pump system to run the water so say you have a mass electric failure you still would only have as much hot water that was in the tank as would someone with a normal electric water heater. For us in a place where we get quite a few power cuts this was a big facor when deciding on the roof tank. Like the idea of Centurions tank with it sitting just under the roof as that would sort out the problem of visual impact but also the pump problem.

Gas booster is a better option if you are on gas mains - we're not and we are not going to go with the gas bottle approach.

Some companies offer a "plonk on" fee which is where thye come to the site and put it all together then place it on your roof so your plumber just has to plumb it all in and not try and work out how it all goes together.

We are looking at a Solarhart 302J model at a cost of $3325 that includes a credit for the greenhouse thingy of $392. We also have to worry about cyclones so there is an extra fee of $400 for a cyclone kit. I'm not saying it is the best just that for us it seemed the better option and we were happy with the company.

cresta57

We have a Dux system, it's a 300l tank sitting under the house with two panels on the roof plenty of hot water for three of us. They are more esthetically pleasing to the eye than the "tank on the roof" style Solarhart. The down side is if there's a power failure during the day there's no hot water to come home to as they rely on a small electric pump to circulate the heating fluid throughout the system. We've been in our home for 18 months now and in that time we've only run short of water a couple of times, usually after three/four consecutive dull days. There is a provision for heating the top 1/3 of the tank via tariff 11 Super Economy [night rate] if there is no hot water in the tank. The problem with that is you have to wait until it kicks in, usually some time after 11pm, then wait two hours for enough water for a shower:curse:
To be honest the standing charge of $16 bucks a quarter on the second [economy] meter is more expensive per annum than if we'd paid normal rate for the power we've consumed on the economy tariff. It's a nice little con by Ergon

EDIT:
My folks had a Solarhart system 350l tank on the roof they had no problems with it in 3 years, Solarhart used to have a corrosion problem it was corrected by using sacrificial anodes, I'm assuming these must be replaced after a set period.