dandd

Weve been looking into replacing our HWS with solar hot water.. do our bit for the planet and all that.

I was wondering what experience others had of either? its going to be about $4000 so i want to make the right choice.

Basically our choice is between edwards open system, but with better steel, or solarhart closed system with allegedly poorer grade steel plus sacrificial anode (whatever the hell that is???).

ta for lookin'

bridie

Dunno what the difference is, but we plumped for Edwards purely because it worked out cheaper for the system. No complaints so far but we've only been using it a few weeks....

steve99

Have no idea about the difference between the two, but we have an Edwards one on our roof, works perfectly from about November to May, during winter just need to flick the switch for a couple of hours and it soon heats up. I think with the newer ones you have the option of a timer type set up to have it come on automatically.(it is a bit of a pain having to go outside to the fuse box and flick the switch)
Id say ours must be well over 10years old, the tank part itself looks fine, but the actual panels look pretty knackered, one looks like it might of been replaced at somepoint (at least 4yrs ago) the other I doubt is doing much, all the frame around it has got pretty rusty so I think i'll probably need to get that replaced in the next year or so.
Anyone have any idea what a replacement panel costs?

bridie

Ta for the info

Ours doesnt have a timer, just a switch in our kitchen. It only takes about 15-20 minutes to heat a tank of water using the electric heater rather than solar.

Can you replace just a panel or do you have to do the whole lot? I'm not sure...

steve99

Im hoping just a panel, and looking at it the one on the right looks a lot newer with a black sort of surround, the one on the left looks like its been at the bottom of the ocean for a month! So hopefully it can be done without having to replace everything.

bridie

Sounds promising then, certainly should be cheaper to get just a panel rather than a whole new system...

themerlin

Had our solar hart for 5 years with no issues.