Solar Hot Water Panel Efficiency

http://cr4.globalspec.com/search/sitesearch?do=show&sort=textmatchrank&srch=solar%20panels&order=asc

Peter, I have some knowledge of hot water solar panels, having designed and nearly completed a prototype.

I need a device that will record the input, output and storage temperatures dynamically over the period of a day. Kind of the way an ekg records your heart rhythm over a period of time.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=monitoring+solar+panels&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-gb:IE-SearchBox&ie=&oe=&rlz=1I7GZEU_en&redir_esc=&ei=PE59TJrrKZi8jAf6utHSDg

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=monitoring+input+and+out+put+ofsolar+panels&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-gb:IE-SearchBox&ie=&oe=&rlz=1I7GZEU_en&redir_esc=&ei=jU59TIzDAdjNjAeb6uDTDg

There are economical temperature loggers that can be programmed to read at desired intervals, and then download via USB to a computer. Say one each for panel inlet and outlet, and one or two for the storage tank, depending how stratified/mixed the water is.

Yeah, we all love a good graph, but you may find that all the data logging is more costly in time and money that the solar hot water system itself.
My recommendation, is turn off you other heat source for 24 hours, then enjoy a nice hot totally solar powered shower...
Man that free hot water feels good on your shoulders
Del

Then how about 3 or 4 thermometers and a guy to read them from dawn to dusk some nice day?

I could not agree more about the money. However, this is to test my preproduction prototype unit. I need the information to make adjustments that I am sure will be necessary. The first of anything is never the best. I already have changes ready to test. And like most other things you buy there are other uses, or maybe not.

In accounting terms this is a lost cost.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=environmental+monitoring&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-gb:IE-SearchBox&ie=&oe=&rlz=1I7GZEU_en&redir_esc=&ei=2nN9TJKFL4-POJvijIIE

Could you please show me your design i wish to build one for my self.

I will gladly share my innovation as soon as I have filed a provisional patent. For just one it would be prohibitively expensive. For a few thousand it is cheap!

If you want to do some searching on the 'net, the keywords you're looking for are "data logger".

Also check ebay ,lot of them ready to sell from china at very low price.

That was what I needed "data logger". You can really tell that I am a novice at this kind of venture. Thank you, Michael

You might look on one of the e-sales sites for a used "strip chart recorder".

There's a product here, guys. Who's going to do it first? It'll take analog inputs like millivolts in a preprogrammed time sequence and output a text file on a USB or wireless link that can be loaded into a computer memory and put into a spreadsheet. It's got to cost less than $100.

Ed Weldon

Where is that product please ?

Like one of these?

How come this solar hot water panel can be used in freezing winter time in places such as Europe and North America ?

Is it only a summer time project ?

Solar water heaters have been around a looong time. (1900) That makes everyone qualified... I took a solar course in 1981.. it was well established even then... so I don't want to hear that it is a young man's [sic] field...

Does it work in the freezing winter season in Canada ?

no, only in the non-freezing winter season in Canada. we are still working on the freezable technology.. but we have a lot of hot women.. so we are content!

We have a number of these where I work, and someone has one for sale on Ebay for only $325, quite a steal if it's in as good a condition as they say;

LINK

In case the link doesn't work, or you want to do you own search, use "scanning thermometer" in the search field.

Tom D.

That is indeed a good price. I found another at $375 that was fully warranted. And another one at $1200.00. Tell me is there a device that can take multiple input like temperatures, pressure and fluid flow gpm simultaneously?

Michael,

Any multi-channel data-loggers would do what you are asking, with the proper sensors and the software to log/chart the data. National Instruments, Omega, Dataq, among others, make multi-channel data loggers. Once you have the data-logger, then it's a matter of choosing the right sensor for you application. So in your case you would need the data acquisition device (data-logger), temp sensors, pressure sensors, and flow sensors. Once you have all the "pieces", it's a matter of getting everything configured and connected. You will not find an "off the shelf" system to do what you are asking, but you can easily built it from the individual pieces.

Do a search on "data acquisition" and do a bit of reading, and you'll have a good idea of what would be involved.

Hope that helps,

Tom D.

Tom,

Thank you for that information. As I have said, instrumentation is my very weak point. There are others but this one is the weakest. With enough reading I will come up to speed I am sure. thank you again, I did not realize that there were sensors for everything and that they could be used in the same data logger.

I can not tell you how much I have learned from reading the posts in CR4. the guys and gals on here are the best!

Michael

Data logging is a BIG field. You'll have to shop around quite a bit to get a cost effective system - stuff from the "big boys " (National Instruments etc) is very good, but very costly and probably over-specified for your application.

Remember you're not doing nuclear physics experiments - 8-bit analog-to-digital conversion will give you better than 0.5% accuracy, and you probably only need to sample once a minute at the absolute max.

Try having a look at Amplicon - they carry a wide range (cheap'n'cheerful to hi-spec), and their on-line catalog is priced.

(Usual disclaimers).

Michael,

This might be your simplest, economical solution. If you use an iButton, you will need to wrap it in gladwrap to make it waterproof. We use them to check pasteurisation temperature in brewery production line. Inserted into a marked bottle and retrieved at the other end to download the captured data.

http://www.embeddeddatasystems.com/

If you go down the 1-Wire sensor path you can have multiple sensors on a network logging to your PC. We have done this to monitor solar water temperature for manufacturer display purposes or logging to a simple Scada application.

GA

So long as they are labeled and put back exactly - should do everything PO requires.