Solar Indirect Water Heater is a Green Choice

Friday, July 29, 2011 by Gerry Clisham

There are rapid advances in the use of the sun's energy that are makiSunng it attractive to a growing number of homeowners.  While solar power has been available for decades (even the White House had panels in the 1970's), the activity in this market is reaching a fever pitch.  These advances are reducing the costs of installation, which is driving new business, driving new investment, further reducing the costs.  That is the power of progress.

One of the best paybacks today in the solar market is solar thermal - using the sun to heat a home's hot water - and even help with some space heating.  The concept is actually very simple.  Circulate water or glycol through rooftop tubes that heat the water and then transfer that heat to domestic water.  Of course it is more complicated than it sounds and there are a lot of ways to get this done.  But the bottom line is that these relatively simple and compact systems can offset much of the energy used to heat the hot water in a home.  And this is significant because hot water Smart Multi-Energy Tankheating makes up 25% of household energy costs.

Triangle Tube offers a solar hot water solution for homes with hydronic heating.  The Smart Multi-Energy (SME) Indirect Water Heater is designed to integrate solar energy into the complete hydronic system.  The  SME contains a heat transfer coil that transfers the heat from the solar panels to the hydronic system water that surrounds a domestic water tank.  This large volume of water (both hydronic system and domestic) is able to maximize the  heat energy from the solar panels.

When the solar panels are not able to meet the demand, the hydronic system provides heat from a boiler.  Triangle Tube's Prestige and Challenger natural gas or propane boilers are green choices as their AFUE's are 96% and 95% respectively.  They feature low NOx emissions and modulating controls using outdoor reset to minimize their carbon footprint.

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