Didn't think a presentation on smart water heating tanks could be this intriguing.

@JohnSmith-rq5rv

5 жыл бұрын

OmniSzron The whole idea of a national network of hot water heaters working together is such an interesting concept.

I've a 300L tank heated with 2 immersion heaters running off the solar PV on my house. Depending on available power I switch on one or put both in series to heat the tank. It has 50mm of high performance insulation on the tank and is boxed in and sealed up with another 50mm of plywood/kingspan. Once it gets up to temperature it stays hot for several days which is great as I'm off grid!

It makes total sense using hot water for energy storage, but I never thought it would be practical since it would mean fluctuating water temp. I'm very happy to have been proven wrong. Very cool tech and another excellent video!

@petearmstrong2005

5 жыл бұрын

Cheers Jeremy! Exactly the thinking we have - storing energy by varying temperature is problematic from the point of view of heat-losses, accelerated scaling and scalding so we prefer to do things this way :)

@ehombane

5 жыл бұрын

I do not see this thing feasible with all those internal pumps. Will break soon, and is more expensive. If you want to heat only what you use just use instant heater. This is too a little expensive since it needs a more powerful heater. And for the second part, storage, when is energy in excess, yes is a good idea, and is used already where the grid and devices are getting smarter. So if this part of a test, do a second one, with a regular tank used for storage when is cheap energy or excess, and instant heating for the rest of the time when there is no hot water stored, and see which one is better considering the overall price of energy, and system plus maintenance.

@yash1152

3 жыл бұрын

i didnt understand the video that much

One thing you forgot is to insulate the warmwaterpipeing from the watertank these things heat up quite alot and if you do your hot water externally via a gas or oil heater it can save you quite a bit. Here in germany it is even required by law that you insulate these pipes with insulation that is roughly at least as thick as the diameter of the pipe itself to prevent heat losses and save energy. You are not punished for not having it on, but it is a waste of energy and you can easily do it yourself and offset the cost of the insulation realtively fast.

@Alan_UK

Жыл бұрын

100% agree. In the UK my 1997 house has no pipe insulation and the pipes run under the upstairs floor from the boiler on the ground floor. Unfortunately, the floors are chipboard (particle board) that are extremely difficult to take up - they just break up. To make it worse I have laid engineering floor over the chipboard (but that is clipped together and just floating). It would have cost very little to have insulated the pipes when the house was constructed. Shows how backward in the UK building industry. I would just love one of your German zero energy Hus houses.

No more arguments about leaving the emersion heater on! Excellent!

Pete Armstrong getting interviewed by Kryten - it's almost too good to be true. Thanks guys, this made my year!

can't believe anyone thumbs downing new tech? Brilliant insights big thanks to fullycharged...

So It looks like all those years playing a domestic service robot may of rubbed off a wee bit on Rob judging by quite how neatly folded his towels are

I thought that’s how old-school hot water tanks worked, there were 2 elements coming from the top, a short one and a long one, and a switch “Sink/Bath” which switched between them. So you could heat a small or large amount of water. This seemed to fall out of fashion for “thermal stores” which heat the whole bulk of the tank. Guess it’s going back to the old way, albeit more hi-tech!

Awesome stuff!! Once you scale up that concept, and combine that with a national fleet of EVs, that should surely absorb and buffer a vast renewables generation network.

@josdesouza

5 жыл бұрын

So much so that you can keep on adding more wind and solar as if there was no tomorrow! It's awesome for sure!

You are the person that should be used for tests, you share the knowledge and inform the world

@Travlinmo

5 жыл бұрын

Here is my rude comment. You asked and I am a giving person. (A well hidden rude comment) I agree with Robbie, putting this in the home of a KZreadr makes loads of $ense! I hope you will do a follow-up in the future.

I admire your transparency Rob! Liked the video too. My 2000 litre tank works on the same principle really and helps me heat the house from solar thermal, particularly on chilly evenings in spring and autumn.

We are lucky here in Australia. I installed an evacuated tube solar hot water heater 3 years ago. We have used zero electricity for water heating since. Best investment ever. At any one time we have a 300L tank of 90+ degree Celsius water available. It boils in summer by 10am!

You've got to love the wave of inventiveness coming to us these days and the shift in how we use, store, create and manage energy for peak performance and reliability is a game changer for this world. Thanks again Robert and team for bringing us this news. It's another piece of kit to add to our things to consider when building our homes in the future.

Excellent idea. Anything moving towards energy storage is a good thing!!

another fantastic video from Robert, wish when i brought my new home it was supplied with a tank like that.

@4yourgarden

5 жыл бұрын

have a word with Robert you may get on same scheme he is on

@hughmarcus1

5 жыл бұрын

That system is designed to be retrofitted to existing homes. Stratification is well known, they’ve just added smart controls to it.

The UK is really leading the way to showing how energy conservation needs to be done. Good stuff!!

@chrisminnoy3637

4 жыл бұрын

Not really no.

Interesting new way of getting hot water. I went about 5 years ago for a carbon fiber heated tank since I hhave PV pannels since 10 years. So I switched more to electric rather than gas commonly used here in Italy. The carbon fiber layer which heats the stainless steel tank is on the outer side of the thank. It gives the advantage of not building up calcium - the typical problem with a traditional coil heating system - although I have a water softener to solve this problem. This carbon fiber heating system claims to be 30% more efficient in energy consumption over the traditional tanks with coils. I am pleased with it and now installed the Tesla PowerWall2 since last june to manage all this even better. I also control the energy flow to the hot water tank with a low cost WiFi plug which I control from my smartphone. It allows setting times (on/off) or manually control the energy to the tank. Fun with all the electric solutions and the technologies to support all this.

Nice Robert! I like the way you bring forward the accumulative benefits ❤️🖤💚

Get those shiny copper pipes insulated.

@just_chris1630

5 жыл бұрын

Acharacle & Achiltibuie absolutely those electron guzzling Tesla types are all about new tech but when it comes to home diy nothin’

@Roxor128

5 жыл бұрын

Yeah, they should be wrapped in squishy black foam!

@josdesouza

3 жыл бұрын

Thus spake the energy-efficiency gestapo.

Interesting as always FC. The white tank( potable ) is not part of the heating system is is part of the hot water expansion system ! “So are you happy with it ? “ Like he would say no 😂

Fascinating. I can see the benefits in large users with predictable useage. Hotels maybe..

@Maaniic

5 жыл бұрын

Larger buildings have system on a whole other scale and usually keeps relatively small amounts of hot water stored if any and at lower temps only to regularly and briefly get it real hot to kill of any bacteria in the system. They usually also control the production to have more HW on hand during the morning and around dinner time when most ppl shower. In some sports arenas with electronically controlled showers you let the showers run during the bacteria killing cycle. This is done at night. This might be good for homes where you normally have had simpler systems and cant fit a more effective heating solution, using direct electricity to heat thing is quite wasteful.

@kmac499

5 жыл бұрын

We needed a new boiler three years ago and fitted an unvented mains pressure hot water tank, that is really really well lagged. We also had PV panels fitted with a device which detects excess solar generation and diverts that to an immersion heater. Smart as your system is with the stratification techniques, How about using your grid price sensing tech and the PV diverter to make a black box that can be retrofitted to existing systems. That would be simple electrical fit rather than a full plumbing job.

@tomstdenis

5 жыл бұрын

You can chain tankless heaters for this very problem.

Fascinating product - at scale this could really help smooth supply and demand. With technology like Tesla's recent "grid scale" batteries in Australia and these water tanks the idea of high/low price spikes in grid prices will be a thing of the past before long! Too much power? Heat up a bit of extra water in thousands of tanks. Too little power? Delay heating up water for 5-10 minutes. A friend of mine told me there's a hotel in London that's connected to the grid - at peak times (end of Coronation Street when all the kettles are turned on) the power companies can make the hotel's air conditioning turn off for a couple of minutes to help reduce demand. Sounds like a no-brainer if your old tank fails - I wish them every success!

@petearmstrong2005

5 жыл бұрын

Greg thanks very much for the support, much appreciated :) do feel free to drop us a line through our website www.mixergy.co.uk

@davefiddes

5 жыл бұрын

Agreed. Much cheaper and simpler than battery storage though we need both.

Hello Fully Charged. I just want to say I love what you guys do with this program. I love hearing about new upcoming technologies about green energy and EV's. It has gotta me excited about the future and makes me envious that I am not currently living in an area that isn't more Pro EV and into renewables. The ideas and concepts presented on these shows has gotta me excited about engineering and my life long dream of being an inventor or innovator. As soon as I can I will be a patron of your show and support what you do. It has given me new ideas and excitement for innovation. I would one day love to come visit you and your team to thank you personally for going out there and showing me what i couldn't even imagine possible.

Fantastic idea! I dream about having my house energy neutral and driving an EV on the energy I gain from ' my house' . Keep up the good work you're doing with the video's. I have never seen and heard so much, normally 'dull', information on renewables done in such an entertaining way ... love it!

Look forward to each new show. Thank you.

I'm glad you pointed out that your thermostat is technically upside down. Saved me doing it.

This is very smart. I can't wait for an update in a month or 6 months from now. One thing that amazes me most is that it seems like the electricity provider there is not monopolized(if thats a word) well its not owned by one company like it is in South Africa which is awesome

This is excellent technology! Thanks for covering this.

Because of this episode I have one installed in my new house in New Zealand now. Cheers Robert!

@stefanzahariou5028

3 жыл бұрын

Which company did you purchase it from Thomas? and how has it been going thus far?

@thomasevans7792

3 жыл бұрын

@@stefanzahariou5028 I imported it myself directly from mixergy.

@thomasevans7792

3 жыл бұрын

@@stefanzahariou5028 been working like a dream.

@stefanzahariou5028

3 жыл бұрын

@@thomasevans7792 cheers mate, I'll have to look into doing the same.

This is fascinating and amazing technology. I hope these guys are rewarded with a large pile of cash for their ingenuity. Doing well while doing good.

Hadn't thought about this at all but this is genius. I wish them so much success and will definitely be installing it when I become a homeowner.

@petearmstrong2005

5 жыл бұрын

Thanks LZ - best of luck with getting your home and do keep an eye on us on www.mixergy.co.uk and keep in touch!

I assume every time you say “solar” you mean photo voltaic panels. Some of us have solar thermal panels on the roof which, on most days, heats the tank for free during daylight hours

@Driftless_Wanderer

2 жыл бұрын

PVs are so cheap now it’s better to go electric straight in to hot water tank. No need for glycol, or water systems on roof.

Vary interesting an informative thank you. I own a 4.7KW PV system for over 8 years. However over 40 years ago I started installing a conveniently located remote switch for my electric hot water system along with super insulating my hotwater tank. Having the switch conveniently located in the bathroom. I now only have my hot water tank on for 10 min a day along with just switching it on before I start preparing to shower and turning it off when I am finished. I believe it was about $15 - $20 USD in parts to add the in line high current switch. However, it will be more if you need to hire an electrician to make the connection obvulisly (luckily I know how to safely do this on my own and have the tools I need). AnyWay, I like the system fetured in this video a lot. However it will be costly for the home owner once the studdy is up inorder to purchase the equiptment and pay the labor to have it all installed I am sure. One last thing: Mr. L. perhaps you should consider super insulating this new tank of your too on it's exterior. My water tank takes days to loose all it's heat due to the extra layers of insulation I began always add in the mid 1970s. And I now place the tank on 2 inches of rigid foam board when I first intall or replace a tank. This too helps if the tank is sitting on a cold floor. This is both the first and easyest step to do inorder to start saving your hot water heating expence actually.

Wonderful heater. Very happy that he was able to buy one. The Graphene heaters will be even more amazing. They will convert electricity to heat more efficiently. Future is great !

@adamt7667

5 жыл бұрын

Resistive heaters are by definition 100% efficient. Graphene would only improve thermal conductivity, which frankly won't be revolutionary

@tonyhussey3610

3 жыл бұрын

You didn’t factor in 2020...future is shite 😇🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

I have two heating elements in my tank. One at the top, which is on a thermostat, should the hot water run out. And one at the bottom, which comes on at night when electricity is cheap.

@petearmstrong2005

5 жыл бұрын

That's a very practicable arrangement Stuart and one that works well with Economy 7, we just go a step further in having more granularity in terms of heating and a faster recovery of heat for small volumes in the top of the cylinder. So if you want to get more efficient use of Eco 7 along with better control then the Mixergy tank provides a useful alternative!

@difflocktwo

5 жыл бұрын

Pete armstrong Maybe multiple heaters down the tank would be more solid-state than pumps for circulating cold water.

@johnburns4017

5 жыл бұрын

The pump is called a _shunt_ pump. You can have just one 9kW immersion heater at the top of the cylinder. This will only heat the top one third or one quarter, giving a quick heat recovery. To heat the the rest of the cylinder a slow moving shunt pump can gradually move the hot water down the cylinder to whatever volume you want. If you want half full of hot water then you can have it. As the water cools in the top of the cylinder because the pump is moving hot water slowly down the cylinder and cooler water from the bottom to the top, the immersion's thermostats kicks in. So you always have usable hot water at the top of the cylinder ready to draw off. The cylinder will have, or _maybe_ should have, baffles down the cylinder to maintain stratification - keeping hot water in stratified levels down the length of the cylinder. Temperature sensors would need to be at points down the side of the cylinder. Having a low wattage shunt pump means only having one electrical immersion heater, meaning less cost - no heavy cables, for multiple immersion heaters, switches, etc. Three immersion heaters can draw a fair amount of electricity,

Robert, will you be doing any kind of follow-up on the tank in regards to how well it worked for you (like did it run out of hot water more than usual or did other unexpected issues pop up - or not), any data regarding cost savings, and etc.? Very interesting episode - I know I didn't really think about my tank as a possible energy storage device.

I have a similar system with a solar panel on the roof. It's honestly the best thing I ever bought. After emptying the hot water with 3 showers in the morning we have a tank of piping hot water by 4pm the same day with no use of oil to heat it. Even in the winter it raises the water temperature by a good 30 degrees leaving the oil heating for a few minutes to top up.

Love this and glad someone else has expended the effort in designing this ;) - when my Megaflo gives up, which can take about 10-12kWh of solar diversion at the moment depending on incoming water temp etc, I'd be happy to get one of these - price looks competitive too. Always wondered why after a long bout of solar and then a cloudy day the water would suddenly get cold - now I know ;) Get some lagging on those pipes Robert :p

A standard duel element tank with the bottom element solar powered by 1kw all day with top element connected to grid for backup is very efficient too

I have what's called a solar iboost fitted to my emersion heater tank, whenever there is excess solar energy it's diverted to the emersion heaters in the cylinder, my cylinder has two emersion heaters in it, one at the bottom and one in the middle, both are connected to the iboost. The iboost diverts the energy from one emersion to the other when required. In the mornings when very little In the house is being used the cylinder is heated up via solar and as it's a pretty modern (normal) boiler it stays hot for hours. since it's been fitted our boiler hasn't come on once to heat any water, we have had free hot water from solar. It remains to be seen how it will perform on the shorter winter days but the signals are good so far. I tested it by switching the emersion off to allow the water in the cylinder to cool, I then turned on my PC, three TVs plus various lights, (the solar was producing 2.8 kwh at this time). I then turned on the emersion, the iboost diverted 1.1 kw to the emersion and heated the water. It will always divert electricity when there is more than 100w free, so it looks promising so far. It takes probably 15 mins to install the system and is well worth it so far.

@petearmstrong2005

5 жыл бұрын

Thanks read more! we are big fans of solar iboosts - if you connect a solar iboost to our system it stratifies the energy from the top of the tank downwards. This means that you get more service from small surpluses of solar power. Furthermore, you can set different charge points on your schedule so that other appliances like an electric vehicle or a home battery can take the surplus once the tank has reached the level you want.

@4yourgarden

5 жыл бұрын

we have had our iboost a few years now you will not get much hot water in the winter

Keep going! You are changing the world!

I spent the 1/3 of the video admiring the shelving.

A great bit of tech, a great bit of innovation from a new company which could hopefully alter how energy is dispersed throughout the national grid. Very nice and exciting

Brilliant Robert , and like me transparent is best ! Still happy to keep up with Patreon contributions as Mark needs his supply of bread and cheese and strong coffee for those long editing nights !

Very interesting concept. Love this kind of videos.

Amazing episode! Why can't a company like Mixergy cooperate with a home building company to install them in their new homes - not only to promote it but also to get more data? All new homes need hot water - why not push to use these?

In the U.S. most electric water heaters use thermal stratification, but for a different purpose. They have an upper and lower element and use them independently to keep the top water hot longer. A couple of years back I went to a heat pump water heater, which It's the lowest energy use water heater available here. A side benefit is that it air conditions my garage by taking heat out of my garage and putting it in water. I use a timer to make best use of the variable rate tariffs and solar, but a timer is not smart and it would be nice to have that part automated. The water heater has an smartphone app, but strangely there are not options for timing for solar or rates.

I can't think of a better person to be a part of this trial!

Back to the good old days of waiting for the hot water tank to warm up before having a shower/bath. Good job!

@petearmstrong2005

5 жыл бұрын

Except that the Mixergy tank is far quicker to recover than a conventional tank and more efficient than an instant gas boiler with the opportunity to store clean renewable energy :) (Oh mains pressurised tanks also deliver higher flow rates!)

Nice explanation!

Our old Yugoslav boiler from ca. 1988 had the same system, and was connected to solar on the roof. The roof part was absolute shit, but the boiler got heated in winter by a gas stove and in summer by the solar. Spring and autumn, you used electric heater that v was in the top of the boiler that heated enough water for four showers. Our modern (10 years old system is similar, but the boiler has much better insulation and the roof part is superb, heating 250 liters in spring and autumn that lasts for few days, usually enough to get through rainy week. winter is again heated by the stove. I bet that in England you cud heat your house directly from the roof solar system. Electric management on the boiler from the video is impressive.

Super interesting. This is something I hope will take off. As a owner of lots of solar I would like to store more of the energy like this.

We've had tanks with dual electric elements for years with say a 3KW at the bottom and a 2KW at the top. Time clock controlled so during the day you only heated the top first thing in the morning you heated the water from the bottom.

how does a consumer take advantage of half hour grid pricing? It makes so much sense....great invention.

Would be SO keen for one of these!

When travelling to UK I was surprised solar water heating systems arent really used there. They are more efficient than panels producing electricity

@ThomasBomb45

3 жыл бұрын

Not if you use a heat pump. Heat pump plus PV is very efficient

@immers2410

Жыл бұрын

@@ThomasBomb45 debatable

How has the Mixergy Tank performed in your home Robert? Possible revisit episode?

Thank you Robert for another amazing story (even though it was just about hot water tanks, lol)!

Please draw the Henry Hoover face on that Pressure bottle, Another great video

Thanks mixenergy !! Great idea and product

@petearmstrong2005

5 жыл бұрын

Cheers Bryan!

In 1990 my studio flat had a tank with 2 heaters, one at the top and the bottom - not a new thing but understand the controls are a lot better.

Living in Florida, I can think of one instance when you'd want to full charge your hot water tank: when a hurricane is approaching. Having been through a couple of them and being without power (no more than a day, fortunately), it would be nice to have that available.

Fabulous idea!

Would be interested to see how this compares with one of the SunAmp Heat Batteries that Fully Charged looked at a year or so ago. Either way I think the idea of storing excess renewable energy as heat is going to be the way forward as its so much cheaper than storing as electricity. Added to which heat is the biggest use of energy in modern homes.

@That1ufo

5 жыл бұрын

I would hope this is in the price range of a normal water heater replacement, SunAmps start at £1,200 without vat or install, and if you have Solar you want a normal tank and dump as much heat as possible when you have the free energy, you may not have the sun tomorrow.

My immersion heater in my tank has a Willis tube attached. The small volume tube heats first, then the main volume of the tank if you want it. My tank is 30 years old.

@petearmstrong2005

5 жыл бұрын

Interesting Paul, we have come across these systems, the advantage here with our system is the fine grained control of temperature and ability to select your state of charge as you wish. The software and scheduling abilities will also allow adaptation to your useage profiles to further save energy. Furthermore external Willis tubes lose quite a bit of heat compared to our system where all the heating is integrated within the insulated envelope of the hot water cylinder.

@commuterbranchline8132

5 жыл бұрын

Pete armstrong no doubt your refining the concept of heating the right amount of water at exactly the right time and as cheaply as possible. We enjoy the fruits of our solar PV and Solic 200, good luck with your endeavour.

US water heaters/tanks have two elements. Like this innovative tank the cold water comes in the bottom and the hot water is drawn from the top. The top element is for immediate use and bottom one is for full tank heating. The upper area of the tank mush reach the set temperature of the top thermostat before it switches the electricity down to the bottom element which then turns off and on as the bottom thermostat dictates and keeps the entire tank hot until hot water is drawn off the top of the tank. When the top thermostat registers the temperature to be below it's low setting then the electricity is switched back to the top element.

That circa 20% drop in capacity overnight demonstrates perfectly the need for pipe lagging.

This is very interesting! I'd love to see a video that describes how an average semi detached 3 bed house, gas combi boiler, no solar/battery, would outfit with the kit you show on the channel and an approximate cost. I'd be interested in replacing the south facing side of my roof with solar, PowerWall for storage and replacing the gas boiler with a Mixergy equivalent but I've no idea of the cost so I could approximate the savings I'd get in return.

@spencerwilton5831

5 жыл бұрын

buaan switching from gas to electric heat is a bad choice unless you have a source of free power. Gas is still the cheapest form of obtaining heat. Even off peak electricity is twice the price, peak rate electricity three or four times the price. If you're going down the solar PV route it may be worth it but return on investment will be long- space heating is by far the biggest energy cost for any UK home, water heating is perhaps 20% of You gas bill maximum.

5:26 This is the first time I've seen a laptop without an apple logo on it on a youtube video. Congratulations!

@petearmstrong2005

5 жыл бұрын

Thanks Dudley ;) I'm very happy with my Dell XPS haha!

Really interesting video!

I recently installed a Quantum mains pressure hot water cylinder-- it uses "some " of the same logic but is only for electrical input such as E7 (or E10) in my case. Two elements but controlled by numerous thermal sensors and a little computer which gradually "learns" what is required day by day and adjusts the input accordingly> The control unit shows what portion of the tank (150 L in my case) is heated and to what temperature(settable to within 1degrC) It's significantly more expensive than an old fashioned two element low pressure copper cylinder but looking at my electricity consumption it won't take long to pay back.

I have a similar heat battery system where the spare solar on the roof is diverted into the water tank instead of being exported to the grid (which I get paid for whether it's exported or not). In the UK this summer we're getting piles of free hot water. Trouble is, it's a cold shower I really need right now ...

Very interesting as always, Robert. Thanks for that! How do you feel does this system weigh up against the Sunamp system?

And there I was thinking when new video was coming out :)

looks good, how does this differ from my standard immersion tho? on all the ones ive seen the element screws in on the top of the tank, so by definition must heat top down??

Woah precisely what I was looking for.

that's honestly awesome

That is one crammed closet/utility room. Americans love to do the same thing and design houses with a closet for a utility room. Then cram a boiler, furnace, water softener, water heater, etc in it. The main water line is where you can't access it. Oh and a floor drain sloping the wrong way just to throw in there. Then 10 years down the road when stuff breaks down, they complain about the cost. So what I'm saying is 10 years from now when that tank goes out and you have to rip all the copper out to remove it, better be ready for that bill lol.

Agree stratified domestic hot water stores are the way ahead and storage for heat pumps district heating as it reduces installed capacity for heat supply from 23 kW to 60 kW for instant hot water to 3 - 9 KW also system can improve the efficiency of gas boilers when combined with a plate heat exchanger in the pumped circuit.

Great idea! How is this connected to your solar panel, power wall and EV production/usage? Is there a good controlsystem for all of it? Can you just add a switch to your current water heater?

Excellent video! So much common sense

I'll wait to see the aggregated long term field test data.

What a nifty idea!

How fast is it from 0 - 60mph❓

Good video. Got to say though a Sunamp heat battery and a combi boiler is probably the way to go if you're putting a new system in.

@petearmstrong2005

5 жыл бұрын

We'd say it depends on the type of installation! To meet our 2050 carbon objectives we need to migrate from gas and so our view is renewable energy heating tanks will play a big role :)

@Barnaclebeard

5 жыл бұрын

Not when it's free...

@justinfowler2857

5 жыл бұрын

Yeah except that they don't sell the sunamp in the states yet. Hopefully one day they will. Does anyone know how much sunamp's system is going to cost?

Robert Llewellyn you're so bloody charming, love all of your videos!!

Hello guys! This is a really interesting topic! I really enjoy your videos about energy storage. It would be awesome if your youtube content had subtitles. Even a english transcription would help to get some minor details that sometimes get lost for non native english speakers and would foster your international audiences.

Thank you so much for those amazing videos, I learn a new (useful) thing every time I watch one of your videos, I would like to see something about Air conditioning system as I know they use a lot of power, can we have something like that in the short future operates on renewable energy alone? thank again :)

You'll have a job and a half getting the tank out if you ever need to replace it. But, having a hot water service that saves electricity will be a good thing. In Australia we have a Edwards solar hot water heater which uses the sun to heat the water up to 100C. But if it has been cold we can turn on a timer that uses a 2400 watt element inside the stainless steel 150ltr tank. It only takes 1 hr from 5AM to 6AM to heat the water to 60C which is enough for 3 long showers. It only cost us $4500 which was not long after they first came out over 10 years ago and still going strong. I imagine they are much cheaper now.

I have an electric water heater with a timer and solar water heating adapter. The solar water heating collectors are extremely efficient. The timer is set to turn on at night just for a few hours as a backup. Most of the time the water is so hot from the daytime that the heater doesn't use the backup electricity at all.

My solar boosted hot water tank has the inlet at the bottom and an electric element about half way up. There are heat collecting panels on the roof and a small pump that circulates water back into the tank once the sun has heated it. A thermostat on the panels makes sure that only hot water is pumped. Since the electricity is connected to off peak it heats up at night, and has enough water for rainy days. In Australia we also have heat pump water tanks that function like a reverse cycle air conditioner - they use electricity to absorb heat rather than heating an element, and so generate approx 4x the heat from the same amount of electricity. The heat pump would probably be more effective than this system, although there isn’t a reason why you couldn’t combine it.

@nerd1000ify

5 жыл бұрын

Interesting that it has a pump. A lot of solar hot water systems circulate the water passively using a thermosiphon.

@markedwards4879

5 жыл бұрын

nerd1000ify - Most of the systems that use that technique have the tank above the collector panels, which means on the roof. My tank is 330 litres, so would weigh at least 450kg and require the roof to be strengthened to take the weight. Instead the tank sits at ground level and the collectors are on the roof. The ultimate system would be to have the solar collectors and heat pump electric heating. Sadly no-one makes those (that I have seen) yet, opting for solar with resistance based electric heating or straight heat pump. Maybe when my current system wears out I’ll be able to get a more optimised system.

Looks really interesting and efficient... One thing the video says is that water tanks are conventionally heated from the bottom? I've seen quite a lot of immersion heaters, yet most of them were fitted to the top of the tank? I always thought that was the norm?

It’s still a resistive element though? I have a heat pump which has a COP of between 2 and 3.6, dependant in the delta t. I’d be interested as to the relative cost and emissions savings verses you system. Obviously the heat pump is more expensive to purchase initially, but my Daikin system does DHW and space heating.

This video got interesting at minute 9. Balancing the grid is the big value it could add. Utilities already offer discounts for direct load controlled hot water heaters. Using this system to store your solar electricity rather than net meter it is less efficient.

@petearmstrong2005

5 жыл бұрын

I'd like to politely disagree here Brian! (but then I would ;) - using a surplus of solar energy to go directly into a Mixergy tank is a very efficient proposition rather than going through a battery with the round-trip efficiency penalty which this incurs. We work with PV diverters on the market such as the Immerson or Solar Iboost but unlike a regular tank, small surpluses of solar energy rapidly develop useful quantities of hot water. Furthermore, we can elect not to use the surplus as we measure the tank's state of charge. This means that the surplus can go into an electric vehicle, home battery or straight into the grid to decarbonise activity occuring outside the home. For more info, please see our video on the topic!:) : kzread.info/dash/bejne/faSqj9eFlqzakag.html

@rkan2

5 жыл бұрын

Pete armstrong Didn't he mean it on a grid level? It would be more efficient to have a grid tied system directly feed the grid and not just heating up water.

@Bfould3120

5 жыл бұрын

Yes, it is better to have you neighbor use the electricity to run electrical devices than convert it to hot water and loose energy in the process.

Can u do a video on heat pump powered hot water tanks. Because they only move heat and don't need to create all the heat they are 3 times more efficient than normal hot water tanks enabling them to be used with the limited solar power from a roof.

@bernardthedisappointedowl6938

5 жыл бұрын

Exactly that thought was crossing my mind, I hope he does, ^oo^

@teslar1

5 жыл бұрын

Check the Sunamp edition. That is based on a heat pump solution pumped into a heat battery

@KuraIthys

5 жыл бұрын

Makes me curious about the solar hot water systems we've had in Australia for decades. I don't think they're solar panels in the electrical sense, even though it looks pretty similar if you see one on a roof. But I do wonder how it's designed to function...

@Pyr0CF

5 жыл бұрын

Those are solar vacuum tubes, pretty decent things.

@snowstrobe

5 жыл бұрын

Yeah, I'm from Oz too, and heating water in the UK has always struck me as incredibly wasteful.

The old type you can heat what you want by setting the thermostat and time it to just heat what you want. You can control your old boiler yourself.

Nice video

My ancient tank gave up the ghost yesterday. How apt that this should appear now! I suppose I will have to pay for mine if I get one though :-) The issue about whether they are reliable is a bit worrying. So many products these days are not fantastically reliable even with years in the market. Slightly cheap components in one part or a design issue that only shows up after long operation. If I go for a Mixergy tank it will be a fight to get the boiler man to install it I am sure and then .... but I will try, I think.

Hi Robert, I know you posted this video some time ago now. But, do you think you could give us an update on how it’s going, is it saving you money, is it reliable, any other benefits or downsides that you hadn’t expected. I personally would like love to hear it, many thanks and much love Thomas