Solar Electric Hot Water Cylinders

 The solar hot water cylinder plays an important role in an effective solar hot water heating system.  A specially designed hot water cylinder that is optimised for solar heating ensures that the supplementary electrical heating is kept to a minimum and that the element is not trying to heat the same water as the solar panels are heating. 

Smart Energy supplies quality A-grade New Zealand made cylinders, that can be custom designed with appropriate wetback, boiler and solar coils at very competitive prices.  Talk to us about your options - even if not installing solar hot water now, installation of a solar ready cylinder will allow for easy retrofit at a later date.

It is preferable when putting in a solar hot water system to use a vertical hot water cylinder, as this will allow adequate stratification (layering) of internal water temperatures.  The heated water coming in from the solar panels rises to the top of the cylinder, where it is available for immediate use, whilst still allowing the cool water at the bottom of the cylinder to continue to be heated by the sun.

When retrofitting a Thermocell solar hot water system to an existing cylinder a specially designed five-way fitting can be used which combines the solar ports with the cold water inlet port of the HWC.  This arrangement works very well when the HWC is on “night rate” tariff or when connected via a timer-switch that turns the element off during the day, to ensure maximisation of hot water generation from the sun.

Talk to us about your options for a new solar electric cylinder, or how Thermocell solar hot water best connects to your existing cylinder.