I wanted to introduce myself, as I just registered here. I am a novice who just moved into a home which has an installed solar hot water system. I assume it was "professionally" installed, however I have very minimal documentation, and I need to learn about upkeep and maintenance. I live on my own and don't use a lot of hot water, so I am concerned about overheating during summers, and I'd like to understand what are safe operating temperatures and what I can do to prevent overheating and/or damaging the system. Currently, once the hot water is flowing, it is very, very hot (too hot to use without mixing cold water in). The house also has an electric heat pump, I am considering roof mounted solar electric panels, and I am located on southern Vancouver Island in British Columbia Canada.
The solar hot water system uses glycol as the heat transfer/exchange fluid. The collector is glass tube, which I believe has internal fins. There is a Caleffi iSolar3 controller, a PAW FA pump, a pressure expansion tank, and two large John Wood storage tanks with back up electric elements. The main one appears to have a "hack" which I assume is where the heat exchange coils were installed. I have contacted the manufacturers of the major components and have some basic .pdf files, mainly explaining installation, which I currently don't need.
I'm hopeful someone will be able to direct me to some good sources for knowledge about hot water solar, and perhaps fill in some details, if I can't locate them elsewhere. Since this is all new to me, I probably need a bit of assurance from more seasoned owners of solar hot water systems that I'm not ignoring things that need to be attended to. Thanks and best wishes.
PS: If I am in the wrong forum for the type of information I need, I apologize for that, and would appreciate if someone might direct me to one more appropriate to my level of knowledge. Thanks again.
The solar hot water system uses glycol as the heat transfer/exchange fluid. The collector is glass tube, which I believe has internal fins. There is a Caleffi iSolar3 controller, a PAW FA pump, a pressure expansion tank, and two large John Wood storage tanks with back up electric elements. The main one appears to have a "hack" which I assume is where the heat exchange coils were installed. I have contacted the manufacturers of the major components and have some basic .pdf files, mainly explaining installation, which I currently don't need.
I'm hopeful someone will be able to direct me to some good sources for knowledge about hot water solar, and perhaps fill in some details, if I can't locate them elsewhere. Since this is all new to me, I probably need a bit of assurance from more seasoned owners of solar hot water systems that I'm not ignoring things that need to be attended to. Thanks and best wishes.
PS: If I am in the wrong forum for the type of information I need, I apologize for that, and would appreciate if someone might direct me to one more appropriate to my level of knowledge. Thanks again.
