Solar Thermal System
Understanding Solar Hot Water systems
Apple's Solar Thermal systems use the light from the sun to heat a specially formulated, long life and non-freezing fluid collected in the solar panels on your roof. This fluid runs through pipework to heat your water.
How it works
Our highly effective systems use your solar tube collectors to harness light from the sun (not heat), so they work on the coldest days of winter and in the height of summer. Naturally, the longer the daylight, the more heat is generated.
This heated solar fluid is pumped around your insulated pipework (to ensure heat is not lost) then through a solar coil in your highly insulated hot water cylinder, heating your water.
Your coil is designed to transfer the maximum amount of heat from the solar fluid to heat the water in your hot water cylinder, thereby saving on the conventional energy you would normally use to do this.
Your installer will locate and preset temperature sensors in your new solar cylinder and collector and connect them to an intelligent control panel. This continually monitors the temperature difference and switches the solar pump on and off accordingly.
Certain factors will affect the efficiency of your solar hot water system, such as the different levels of solar irradiation falling on your home. Homes virtually anywhere in the UK can benefit to some extent from solar energy.
Other factors to consider include:
Location – south facing is best and most productive, followed by the south west and southeast, then west and east. North facing and shaded locations tend not to be suitable.
Optimum angle – your collector is ideally set between 30° and 45°.
Daylight hours – your system will work better during the longer, brighter summer days than darker, shorter winter days.
Results – depending on your hot water usage, a solar hot water system could produce all your hot water in summer and make a valuable contribution by preheating your water during the winter.