Spin off topic - using solar panels for hot water in barn

[cherham]

Hubby and I are just in the process of upgrading the power to our existing barn and have thought about replacing our electric water heater with a new solar water heater system. We have more boarders now and would have to replace our small tank with something larger soon anyway.

We already own the solar panels and have a decent southern exposure on the barn roof. Has anyone done this or recommend a website that we can gather some additional information.

We are located in Ontario, Canada so names of Canadian manufacturers of these water systems would be appreciated.

[Palm_Beach]

Just had this conversation. Google it - it’s complicated. To the best of my knowledge, you need to invest in a large bank of batteries to get completely off the grid. Normally, the solar panels will feed into the grid and simply reduce your electric bill. The panels can charge a battery, so you need to figure out how much battery you need to run your hot water system.

[clanter]

here is link to a chart for the electrical requirements to heat water by raise of temp requirements, it has a Centigrade chart

https://www.watlow.com/reference/files/wattage.pdf

If you are just wanting warm water for the horses to have to drink, you may want to bury a tank below the frost line to take advantage of the geothermal heat

or install a geothermal heat pump
http://www.geothermalgenius.org/blog/hot-water-with-a-residential-geothermal-heat-pump

[lorilu]

DO you get a lot of sun? Back in the hippy days, lots of folks built solar hot water heaters out of shallow pans and lengths of hose or pipe all painted black under a glass or plexi cover. A friend has a pool heater just like that. Works great.

[poltroon]

You don’t generally want to use solar electric to make hot water - it’s more efficient to have a solar hot water unit that directly creates heat using the sun.

There are some details in the installation - climates where freezing is a concern need to have certain allowances, and there also need to be safeguards against overheating and overpressuring your heating fluid (which might be antifreeze rather than water, for canada, and then it does a heat exchange into an electric hot water heater tank).

http://www.homepower.com/articles/solar-water-heating/basics/what-solar-water-heating

For my own use, I have a solar shower purchased from a camping store. It is a black water bag. When I get to the barn, I fill it; then after my ride I have warmed water for sponging off.

[meredithmpage]

I have been researching solar de-icers for water troughs. Not much luck so far.
I’m also thinking of adding solar panels to our garage which has a southern
exposure and try to use it for winter electric bills. Wish I knew someone in
Canada, but I have yet to find someone in Colorado where I live.

[FatDinah]

I think a propane water heater would cost less to install and work better. You could go with a tank or an on-demand tankless model.

[cherham]

Thanks everyone. I don’t like propane in the barn so not an option there. Water on demand is VERY expensive as it uses high amounts of electricity to heat that water quickly. I am continuing on my little quest and have sourced out some ideas.

[trubandloki]

Please update when you have come up with something. I am interested in what you find that will work for this.

Everyone I know that has wanted to add solar heating to their domestic hot water system has not done it when they weighed the cost versus the payback timeline.

[cherham]

Actually my brother has solar panels installed on the roof of his residence and it supplies enough hot water for his own use plus 2 apartments located in the same dwelling. He has TONS of hot water…and we live north of Toronto so not exactly in the sunny south! I will post some more information when I speak to him. We have the panels…just need the expertise to hook this up. Stay tuned!

[cherham]

trubandloki check out this website http://techluck.com/

This is the system we are looking at now.

[clanter]

[QUOTE=cherham;8396275]
trubandloki check out this website http://techluck.com/

This is the system we are looking at now.[/QUOTE]

scrolling down the link, the photo of the control panel “shown mounted and installation”… the use of a cut off extension cord really is wrong. The orange cord on the lower right side of the photo is just a standard SO insulated extension cord not intended for the use shown… which worries me to be concerned about what else have they done in this fly-by-night engineering marvel

[Palm_Beach]

[QUOTE=lorilu;8383562]
DO you get a lot of sun? Back in the hippy days, lots of folks built solar hot water heaters out of shallow pans and lengths of hose or pipe all painted black under a glass or plexi cover. A friend has a pool heater just like that. Works great.[/QUOTE]

One of my troughs in the field is black (the others are gray) and this thing has to be scrubbed out twice as often as the gray troughs.