[sudev]

Sorry but your plumber is probably nuts.

Install the pump at the base of solar heater HOT tank. You can get one cold water line there as well (or create a shunt from incoming cold water line of solar heater). The output (pressurised) is then to be routed to needed locations.

Using pressure inside the solar water heater would not work as a) tubes need to be robust enough and even more importantly b) the solar water heater works on convection circulation and not forced circulation.

Assumption that solar water heater's cold water holding tank is below the level of over head tank or there is arrangement in place to feed cold water to solar water holding tank.

[richie4u]

@deep_bang

Well first of all your plumber is correct regarding the pressurised heater part, I install pressurised solar water heaters for customers who are going to use a pressure pump for the same purpose as you here in Goa. A normal SWH cannot be used if you will be using a pump.

I do not know which company in Bangalore will have the pressurised heaters, but here in Goa I deal in multiple brands and I mostly install VGuard's pressurized systems as I found them reliable. So you can contact your local Vguard dealer for the same. The cost will be a little expensive but it is safer to go with a pressurised system rather then trying your luck with a non-pressurised one .

[sudev]

Can you please elaborate expensive?

[richie4u]

the pressurised system will cost around Rs.10,000 more than the non pressurised system.

[directinjection]

Sudev Ji, I have a few queries:

1. How's your system coping with hard/salty water problem that's prevalent in Faridabad? Have you installed any water softner?
2. Are solar geysers available with built-in distillation plants to obtain clean drinking water? Domestic R.O. filters seem to have limitations when filtering hard/salty water. They can filter only up to a point of brackishness.
3. How practical is it to use solar geyser to generate electricity (through a steam-run turbine) given the fact that generating power through solar panels is still not cost effective? Is this option more or even less cost effective?

[sudev]

No softener but running it direct from municipal and bore well water. Have run it for two years without problems. Unfortunately as I am moving house this has been dismantled this weekend. Did not find any significant scaling. It is donated to a charitable hospital where I hope it continues to provide many years of service.

I doubt solar heaters with distillation are available. It would need evaporation and there after condensing unit too. And distilled water is not good for drinking. There has to be minimum salt/mineral content. Infact pure water is virtually a poison for human body as it will start to "leach" salts from body.

I do not think solar - steam - electricity is viable cost economics with today's tech. Future?

[vina]

Originally Posted by sudev

...

It is donated to a charitable hospital where I hope it continues to provide many years of service.




I doubt solar heaters with distillation are available. It would need evaporation and there after condensing unit too. And distilled water is not good for drinking. There has to be minimum salt/mineral content. Infact pure water is virtually a poison for human body as it will start to "leach" salts from body.

Not to mention it will certainly cause scaling even without hard water.

I do not think solar - steam - electricity is viable cost economics with today's tech. Future?

Thanks for your posts on solar heater. I'm planning to install one - will ask you if I find problems.


Distilled water is not poisonous for the human body. In fact ASAIK some companies abroad actually sell bottled distilled water. It is just that it is waste of money when even hard water will do you no harm.

thermo-solar is slowly becoming more and more viable (in fact it is cheaper on a kWh basis than photovoltaics), the problem is not in generation of elecricity, the problem is that it can not done at a small scale (like photovoltaics) and large scale generation has to be done in areas where land is cheap and you get a very good amount of sun - i.e. hot deserts

In such areas water availability is obviously one problem, the other is that they are far and so electricity produced has to be sent to populated area via expensive new grid systems increasing the installation cost.

[gopikb]

Friends, there is a government subsidy of 30% announced by the Government for installing solar water heaters in residence. This is being advertised in both deccan herald and Times of India in Bangalore. I am not sure if this is applicable for whole of India or just Karnataka state.

You can save a cool 12K towards cost of solar water heater in your home. I have a solarizer water heater 200 liters capacity which was installed 3 years ago and has been saving atleast Rs.400 per month on electricity bills and BESCOM gives a subsidy of Rs.50 every month on top of that for the electricity bill. I had paid 34K to get it installed at that time. Now the same 200L model costs only Rs.27K because of the government subsidy.

Whoever have plans to install solar water heater in their home, do act now. My father in law got the connection this week and he said the salesman indicated to him that government alloted about 50 crores towards subsidy and people can claim subsidy only until this amount is exhausted. Beyond that, they will have to shell out the fill cost of Rs.36K which is the current MRP. We will never know if the state government would allot more funds later towards the solar water heater subsidy. So make hay while the sun shines. Trust me, it is a very worthy investment.

[sudev]

There are three savings:
1. Capital subsidy of ~10k at time of purchase
2. Electricity bill rebate. I get Rs200per month in Haryana
3. Reduced electricity bills.

[black12rr]

Originally Posted by deep_bang

hi guys,
I am going to install a Solar heater for my house, and need some help here.
The house is still being constructed, and as such i have a lot of flexibility now.

The root of the problem is as i explain now: We want to install a shower panel that has a few jets in it, and apparently, this needs a pressurized pump for it to work well. The pressurized pump would be installed near the over head tank, so there is one pump, and all applications that need pressure would use the pressurized line and others would use the normal line.

Now, my plumber says that, since the shower panel would have cold water pressurized, it would also need the hot water to be pressurized.

If I am correct pressurized pump uses electricity ? .That's negating the advantages of solar water heater your setting up.

I don't know if this is feasible ,but can you not settle for non pressurized shower ?

[deepaktpatil]

I stay in Purva Fountain Square in Bangalore (its a high rise apartment with 13 floors) and I have installed a solar water heater. I have a terrace so this was possible. Had to struggle a bit while getting the plumbing modified so this heater could be connected. Its a Solarizer water heater and is pressurized.

Its been working for 2.5 years now and is doing well, hope it continues to do the same. Except for fully cloudy days it gives good amount of hot water for my family of 4. Further its very useful if I have to fill up my bathtub as I assume conventional geysers capacity wont be enough. During rainy seasons, I need to switch on the electric heater present in this model. Average difference of rainy season monthly bills and other months has been around 400-500, so I assume thats the saving I am getting as of now from installing this.

The only problem has been the quality of water in Marathahalli area, 6 months back I got it serviced and there was scaling formation inside the storage tank which was removed.

[deep_bang]

Originally Posted by black12rr

If I am correct pressurized pump uses electricity ? .That's negating the advantages of solar water heater your setting up.

I don't know if this is feasible ,but can you not settle for non pressurized shower ?

Now that i have a pressure pump installed and used it for a month, here is my take. First of all, it is still advantageous from the electricity consumption perspective to use Solar heater, even if you have the pressure pump. The reason is, the pressure pump can be switched on only when required, and switched off otherwise - which means, you only use it while you use the devices that need pressure (usually shower).

Secondly, the pump has a cutoff as soon as a preset pressure is reached. In my case it has been set to cutoff at 4bar, and cut in at 2bar. So, with these settings, i see that the pump is ON for about 10 seconds, and OFF for about 40 to 50 seconds, while the shower is being used.

So, it would hardly consume much power as compared to the water heater.

However, what is a big pain, is that for this one pump, i had to install a pressurised solar system that costs about 10k more. Further, plumbing for pressurised hot line, pressurised cold line, non-pressurised cold line - all this made it very complicated.

Yes - like you suggested, it would have been nice if i could have settled for a regular shower - but it was wifey's long standing requirement, and hence i went for it. Not at all practical - but .

[deep_bang]

Originally Posted by deepaktpatil

I stay in Purva Fountain Square in Bangalore (its a high rise apartment with 13 floors) and I have installed a solar water heater. I have a terrace so this was possible. Had to struggle a bit while getting the plumbing modified so this heater could be connected. Its a Solarizer water heater and is pressurized.

Its been working for 2.5 years now and is doing well, hope it continues to do the same. Except for fully cloudy days it gives good amount of hot water for my family of 4. Further its very useful if I have to fill up my bathtub as I assume conventional geysers capacity wont be enough. During rainy seasons, I need to switch on the electric heater present in this model. Average difference of rainy season monthly bills and other months has been around 400-500, so I assume thats the saving I am getting as of now from installing this.

The only problem has been the quality of water in Marathahalli area, 6 months back I got it serviced and there was scaling formation inside the storage tank which was removed.

Great to know you have a solar in an apartment. I have not seen many apartment complexes who encourage this.

How was the scale formation removed? The water in my area is also pretty bad, and surely i would need to get similar maintainance work done.

[black12rr]

Originally Posted by deep_bang

Now that i have a pressure pump installed and used it for a month, here is my take. First of all, it is still advantageous from the electricity consumption perspective to use Solar heater, even if you have the pressure pump. The reason is, the pressure pump can be switched on only when required, and switched off otherwise - which means, you only use it while you use the devices that need pressure (usually shower).

Secondly, the pump has a cutoff as soon as a preset pressure is reached. In my case it has been set to cutoff at 4bar, and cut in at 2bar. So, with these settings, i see that the pump is ON for about 10 seconds, and OFF for about 40 to 50 seconds, while the shower is being used.

So, it would hardly consume much power as compared to the water heater.

However, what is a big pain, is that for this one pump, i had to install a pressurised solar system that costs about 10k more. Further, plumbing for pressurised hot line, pressurised cold line, non-pressurised cold line - all this made it very complicated.

Yes - like you suggested, it would have been nice if i could have settled for a regular shower - but it was wifey's long standing requirement, and hence i went for it. Not at all practical - but .

Thanks for the detailed reply .Everything is fine untill it works . But things are not ideal in life and things have a self life and when it conks off or does not work, like the pump , additional headache/cost of replacing it ,the down time ,getting skilled labor, and other things ... .Sorry that's how I think .Enjoy madi now .

[deepaktpatil]

Originally Posted by deep_bang

Great to know you have a solar in an apartment. I have not seen many apartment complexes who encourage this.

How was the scale formation removed? The water in my area is also pretty bad, and surely i would need to get similar maintainance work done.

Hi deep_bang,
Apologies for the delayed reply.
My apartment doesnt have any rules that prohibit use of solar water heater.

Solarizer has supplied me this equipment and they do a regular service. They sent a person after I booked a call with them. Scaling was in storage tank which was removed by shaking the tank and draining the existing water through the outlet pipe. I could see the small white gravel and stones like material flowing out with water. I didnt have any scaling in the panels but the service person told me that it can also be removed with help of a pressure pump, which they bring if required.

Charge was Rs 250 plus cost of replacement of bushings that were worn out due to exposure to weather. Its better to do a regular service (once in 6 months is recommended by the company) if water quality is a problem.