Solar Hot Water Programable timer???????

Joe_55

Is that the commercial superstor i believe the coils are intertwined and extend into the upper half of the tank not the most efficient for solar collecting. The tanks with one coil top and one coil bottom will be more efficient on dull days for preheating the water IMO

steve_102

Programable 24 volt timer between vision 1 wiring

I'm looking for a good programmable timer. Normally open contacts that simply close when activated allowing Munchkin Boiler to Communicate with a duel coil Superstor indirect. I'd like to allow Solar hot water to heat the tank during the daytime and Let the Munchkin do the hot water work at night and when needed via a simple push of the button.
Any Suggestions?????????

Kevin_in_Denver_2

differential controller

Some sort of differential controller would be smarter in this case. Then energy will be transferred only when available and needed.

steve_102

Yes. We use Differential Controllers. In Fact this system Would utilize an SMT 100 (Thermomax) My Problem will be wanting to gain as much solar hot water as possible with out boiler backup. My idea is to program 7 day timer running off 24 volt zone control. During the day the timer would shut off communication to the indirect. So the Boiler never fires. At night or at the push of a button it would re-communicate with the boiler.........

Lurker_2

Timer

What you need is the EMX DTM-9 Seven Day Programmable Timer. I'm using it in a solar application similar to yours to shut of an indirect boiler circuit at nighttime. Has back up rechargable battery. Search froogle or Become.com to find an online vendor. It's a little pricey. But it's the only real alternative out there other than buying a cheap 120 volt timer/relay at Lowes and hacking it.

hr

Or

a dedicated solar tank as a preheat.

With a dual coil tank it may be hot in the morning from the boilers input. So.. no solar gain.

With two tanks if DHW was used, then the preheat tank will be cold in the morning to accept the solar energy. Plus you get twice the DHW capacity.

hot rod

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Joe_55

This is true but you will have twice the standby losses. If you have a two coil tank and use the bottom coil for the solar because of stratification water will be much cooler in the bottom of the tank.With a preheat tank you will need to circulate between tanks to avail of the added storage

James

Kevin_in_Denver_2

Steve,

What if there's no solar hot water available and they need it during the day?

Ron Huber

preheat

Is the way to go, most efficient, and what does the standby loss of a preheat tank amount to after all the hot water used by the end of the evening has cooled it down anyway? Even at high temperature a good tank will only lose a 1/4 of a degree per hour. We have the technology to shut one system down when the other one is available etc. etc. , preheat is simple, trouble free, so why bother with extra aquastats and controls?
I did one system with the single tank two exchangers (Viessmann) in 28 years and it does not produce the btu's of a two tank system, big difference on marginal solar days.

steve_102

They Simply hit an "on button" at the timer to re-connect the Munchkin with the Superstor...........

steve_102

Yes it's the commercial tank...........
Duel Coil.

Joe_55

Steve. I have the exact same setup 30 tube thermomax controlled by an SMT 100 heating 80 gal superstor with am 80m munchkin backup and i find that the returning glycol is too warm I don't start heating until around noontime.I am now a believer that by adding a preheat tank to this setup is the better way for early morning gain. I also have my collector at a much steeper pitch maybe 70* on a flat roof giving me about 170* water all summer never reaching stagnation and hopeing to do better in the winter months. Do you think by adding another collector(as i ran
3/4 copper)that maybe i could suppliment my heating zones in the sunny winter months Your thoughts on this please

James