Archive for August, 2008

How does this piece of glass slotted into an aluminium box make my water hot? That has to be the most common question asked by the sales staff at Greencon on a daily basis. Here is a simple step by step explanation of how the system works:

 

 There are Three Basic Parts to the Solar Collector (Vacuum Tube System):

 

1. The Manifold.

This simply is an aluminium rectangular shaped box, with a copper pipe running through its centre

 

             a. The copper water tube is surrounded by a non-combustible material that is also an excellent insulator. So if you had to cut the manifold above in half it would look something like this:

 

                     

 

 

 

 

The above image is not an exact representation of the inner workings of the manifold part within the vacuum tube system, but it shows the basic principles.

Next comes the science:

2. The Vacuum Tube

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  i. The glass tube is made up of two layers, that are joined at the end. When the tubes are joined a vacuum is created so that there is an enhanced insulative effect created within the confines of the tube.

ii. The inner tube is coated with various layers that help with the absorption and insulation properties of the tubes (see above image to right).

iii. With-in this tube system a copper rod is inserted (above picture to left)

iv. This copper pipe is filled with a non-toxic liquid that is sensitive to temperature fluctuations (much like refrigerator liquid used to cool your freezers).

v. The black glass tube attracts the suns rays, traps in the heat and trasfers that heat to the copper innner tube.

 vi. This heat is transferred to the water flowing through the copper pipe within the manifold.

3. The Frame

A frame is then used to mount the manifold and glass tubes on what ever north facing surface is available. There are optimum angles and directions but this will be dealt with in another post.

The critical thing to understand is that the system with-in itself is very modular and flexible, allowing it to adapt the the multitude of different environments each Greencon customer presents.

 

 

 

 

The Critical thing is to get the right system for your situation. The only way to accurately assess what will suit you is to get a Greencon consultant out at your business or property to structure the right system for you!

 

 

 

 

 

At Greencon we realise that customers need to understand how a system works, even if it’s in a very basic manner.

 

We at Greencon have realised that there is many a salesperson out there, bamboozling the potential client with stats and figures, and in some cases with wrong information about there ‘competitors’ so as to try and win a sale.

 

Where is our advantage? Simply put, our advantage is that we have no exclusive agreements with any of the manufacturers of Solar Thermal Equipment (Water Heating Systems). We can supply any of the ‘types’ of systems there are out there, and if a client specifies a particular desire, regardless of cost, then we will give them the ‘Rolls Royce’.

 

 

But in all sincerity, most South Africans see paying money for a system to heat water as an unnecessary cost. Their geysers have been doing it for so long, for very little cost, so why change? Well we hope that as a reader of this blog you already know that there is more than environmental reasons for changing that attitude. Cost will become a driver of change very quickly, and when you are heating water why pay for a Rolls Royce when a very reliable dependable and economic Toyota will get you there in exactly the same time with even better reliability?

 

It is for the reason of cost that we generally tend to recommend a vacuum tube system (pictured below). Heating water is an initial expense, very often an expense that customers have not budgeted for. But for the astute, who have worked out the savings, and compared them to the investment, and actually changed the process by which they look at buying a solar water heating system from that of cost to one of return on investment over 10 – 15 – 20years, then it really makes sense to buy the reliable Toyota to the very expensive Rolls Royce.

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Keep it Green

 

Greencon 

This is why the bloggersphere is a great ‘space’ to be in. I really encourage our Geeencon customers to be fastidious about keeping records of their bills, post our installation. When I get feedback from customers who have made the time and effort to keep detailed records of what has happened to their bills after they have installed one of our systems.

This section within the Greencon Blog will be dynamic, and constantly updated. It will serve as a reference for all existing and potential clients to refer to should they need any more convincing that Solar is the Future.

Read customer feedback: