Peter and Natasha

Written by Natasha, on 19-01-2012

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I can hardly beleive it! We could write 10 blogs alone on the trials and tribulations of trying to get our solar hot water system working properly. Today is a cause for some serious celebration - the mystery is solved, and in the end it was much simpler than any of us thought.

You would think that a new system would work properly from the start, yes? Well it's nearly 2 years since we've had ours and it has never worked properly. We have hot water, there is no issue there, it's just getting it to flow into our taps in the house!

If you are wondering what we mean I will give you an example. I wanted to have a hot shower this morning. I turned on the shower and basin hot water taps (in our ensuite) and then the laundry hot tap, and kitchen sink hot tap. The laundry tap has been the most reliable in terms of getting hot water til lately, this morning it was cold water, but it seems to help getting hot water to the other taps (weird I know).

So after running them all for a few minutes I found warm but not hot water and had to be content with it. After turning off the laundry and kitchen hot water, I turned down the basin flow, got into the shower and hoped for the best. Sometimes it can go quite cold for no apparent reason, but not this morning.

Now I am not going to go into the details of what we have been trying, only to say that it has involved the Plumbing Commission, our original plumbers who installed the unit and did all our plumbing in the house, and the new plumber. The new guys seemed to at least have some ideas and despite trying a few things and making it worse, we still had confidence that they had not exhausted all possibilities.

So after a few weeks holiday, our plumber Doug strode in today quite confident that he had figured it out! He is a very matter of fact man, and is very efficient. After putting down his tool box, and asking a few questions, he went into our unfinished bathroom, where the taps for the basin and shower are roughed in. With a flick of his wrist and tool, he turned those taps off. Hey presto, we have hot water!!!! Wooohoo, I am going to go and have a lovely hot shower tonight! AND, I got some lovely hot water to wash the dishes in tonght.... yeeeehhaaaa!

I am not sure if any of the other things we have done over the last 2 years contributed to this breakthrough, all I know is that it has worked! Despite our reservations after a 5 minute visit, and saying to Doug, "We'll let you know how it goes", Doug said confidently, "I've seen this before and I can almost guarantee it will be fixed now". His confidence was very understated, but it was all I needed. Peter went off to work and I tried the taps. Brilliant, absolutely brialliant!

In other news, we have put down the first coat of our new flooring in some parts of the house, and this coming Sunday will see a second coat go on - yay! Stay tuned for photos and updates.

A very happy Natasha signing off for now :-)

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Posted by SaraM, on 19-02-2012, 1. Solar hot water system Can I ask a few questions of your hot water system please?! Here they are:  1) I presume you’re grid connected with the power (we won’t be) and therefore to get water pressure to your taps do you have a circulating pump?  2) Do you know why the hot water wouldn’t reach the taps until the plumber turned off the ‘roughed in’ taps?   3) Is your hot water system via a copper heat exchanger method?  4) Do you know yet if it provides enough hot water in the Winter?  5) How much did it cost to install?   » Report this comment to administrator » Reply to this comment...