It’s Monday 5th September and clear skies and sunny.  I moved my setup from around the pool to the front garden so i could get 5 or 6 hours of sunlight on my collector to see what the performance was like.

Start point was 30L of well water at 15 degrees and I position my panel due South at about 35ish degrees of vertical inclination which i think was about right.  One of the things I have noticed here in Spain is that panel orientation for thermal and PV panels is less important than in the UK.  There is literally so much light and sun it makes only marginal differences if you are Southeast, Southwest, horizontal or 60 degrees.  PV panels always perform better at correct orientations but my collector seems to work at any angle as long as it is somewhere pointing Southish…..

Optimally positioned my collector reached 60 degrees in 15 minutes and 75 degrees in 22 minutes, left for 30 minutes the water boils.  This isn’t good….after 90 degrees I have noticed it makes odd noises and doesn’t behave as it should.

 

 

 

 

The pause pump pattern was 15 minutes pause pump for 5 minutes but I did notice an unusual thing in this full on sun position.  The temperature after pumping never drops much below 50 degrees (48) and so I think with a different pump (an inline pump capable of continuous pumping) it may be better to pump all the time.

 

 

 

 

The end result of the day’s testing was,  after 5 hours of sun the 30L of water that started at 15 degrees was 45 degrees and with almost no difference in the top and bottom of the cylinder.  I would say 42/3 at the bottom and 47 at the top.  The cylinder is uninsulated and so loses some hear through the tiled floor which would account for a degree or two.  There is also loss through the uninsulated sides.  The air temperature was 30 degrees so not too much loss but perhaps a degree or two.

What I need now is the REUK Super Timer so that I don’t have to stand by the equipment when testing.

Anyhoo, that’s all for now.