Fun and Games with the new Solar Phoenix

Wayco Wayne_2

radiant floor to a recently installed solar Phoenix by HTP. So far I love this water heater. I installed a non solar Phoenix a couple weeks ago and it runs very well. When I got the flat plate HX and the radiant floor hooked up it was so cool to turn the zone valves on and off and listen to the Phoenix modulate to adjust to the heat draw on the tank. I did catch one thing of note though. When the primary circulator through the HX is turned on the jet of water returning to the tank stirs the water up and de-stratifies the tank. The solar differential control has sensors that show the temps at the bottom and the top of the tank on a little picture of the tank on the screen of the control. (pretty cool) Before I turned on the heat the bottom of the tank was around 80 F. The top was 140. When the heat came on, the bottom of the tank went up around 130. If the differential controller needs a temperature difference between the roof and the bottom of the tank it will take longer to initiate the solar. It was a dark and rainy day or the solar would have been on and I wouldnt of caught this. After cogitating on the problem I suggested putting a timer on the gas burner so it would be off for morning showers and the first half of the heating day to drain the tank of it's heat, lower the overall tank temp, and make more room for heat gathering. This would also serve to move the heat into the radiant floor slab to store heat there, making room in the storage tank for more heat absorbtion. WW

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Ross_7

got any pics to post Wayne?

Any pics Wayne?
Ross

hot_rod

On the Solar Phoenix

here is a shot of the one in my shop. I used a Taco mix block, to pull radiant off but subsitituded an Alpha Pro for the B side circ. It's piped so the HX draws and returns from only the upper portion of the tank, and doesn't seem to de stratify the tank At least to the very bottom

Although you do want the bottom of the tank as cool as possible when the sun comes up in the morning, so there is a compromise with an all in one tank.

Pulling temperature off a top coil without a DHW circ really limits the output of the coil, so it is a bit of a toss up.

I've seen some Euro tanks with thermistor rails on the outside. This allows you to position the thermistior at any level on the tank. Very handy for issues like this, or multiple sensors.

I'm very pleased with the Phoenix in generally. Very quiet, modulates nicely, very quick DHW recovery with 130K input, and a nice location for the burner should it ever need work and cleaning. you can sit on a bucket and watch and work it

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Wayco Wayne_2

I'm waiting for pics

from the HO. He's a professional photographer and said he'd send me some nice ones. He used to be a White House photo journalist who is living off the profits of the rights to his pictures taken for the last 3 decades of politics and politicians. A very smart and interesting man. WW

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