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Originally Posted By: paul
your still going to use the same amount of electricity to heat your water to a given temperature even using a timer switch , but heres one that would do the job.

As I said, I don't care about electricity use. I only use the solar water heater because it was already installed when I moved in.

A timer wont work for me. My system has too many manual controls.

Quote:

but as I said what you really need is good thick insulation
so that your water heater does not loose the heat that you are paying for when your not using it.

You can't insulate the collector. That's probably by far the biggest heat loss apart from turning on the tap. Well OK maybe you can, you could have some glass/etc covering with a vacuum gap under it. Then the sunlight can get through but heat can't convect out. It would even block radiated heat like a greenhouse. Now I think about it, I've seen solar water heaters that seem to have glass coverings, maybe it's common. Mine is just metal pipes.

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Quote:
You can't insulate the collector.


You only need to power off the circulation pump that circulates the fluid from the collector to the water heater.

you probably have a temperature sensor inside your collector that powers on your circulation pump after the temperature has reached a certain temperature and one inside the water heater that powers the circulation pump off after the water in the water heater has reached a certain temperature.

but it might be best if you dont mess with such technical stuff , you would need to power off all the sensors so that
they dont just sit there trying to turn the pump on or off all day if you have the pump power disconnected.

but still if the insulation on your water heater is not thick
enough it will lose heat faster than a thicker insulation would.

and when your water heater looses heat a sensor in the water heater allows the sensor in your collector to power on the circulation pump to heat the water back up again if the temperature in the collector has reached a high enough temperature.

it may all be controlled by a circut board.








3/4 inch of dust build up on the moon in 4.527 billion years,LOL and QM is fantasy science.
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Originally Posted By: paul
You only need to power off the circulation pump that circulates the fluid from the collector to the water heater.

It has no pump. The only sensor is a temperature and level sensor connected to a readout inside the house. It doesn't control anything. The water has to be regularly filled manually with a valve. If you operate the electric heater when the water level is too low it burns out. Basically it's a bit of work to use but automating it would be a much bigger task than is worth it. Especially since it's owned by the landlord.

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Quote:
it's owned by the landlord.


then you shouldnt concern yourself with fixing it?

or try one of these float valves.

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?h...ved=0CGUQ8wIwAA

and connect it to one of these electric valves.

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?h...ved=0CF8Q8wIwAQ

then you wont be buying the heater elements everytime you forget to fill the tank.

BTW , you can build a tank outside the water heater tank and use the float valve inside it.

the water levels should be the same in each tank if you position the external tank correctly.

just remember to flow water from the bottom of the external tank to the bottom of your water heater so that the water levels can equalize.

and if you have a pressurized water heater tank then make sure you use a pressure external tank.

just use an old salvage yard electric water heater , remove the heating element and build a fitting that allows you to insert the float into the hole for the heating element.


this way you wont be invading your landlords property only adding a appliance.

I have never seen a water heater that required manual filling
so Im not sure exactly what you have , but maybe the above will give you an idea or two on how to repair this neglect.

could it be that when you moved into the property the landlord had turned off the water valve leading to the water heater because the property was vacant?

have you tried to just leave the water valve on?

you may have a pressure vessel for a water heater tank so if you leave the water valve on the water pressure will equalize and the water will stop entering the tank until you use the hot water again.

is this the type you have?



if so maybe you can just disconnect it and put several of these together for much better hot water at a much better price than all of the above.



Caution: the above solar hot water heater ( garden hose ) delivers extremely hot water.





3/4 inch of dust build up on the moon in 4.527 billion years,LOL and QM is fantasy science.
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