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The Renewable Energy site for Do-It-Yourselfers
Feedback on the AET Drainback Solar Water
Heating Package
This is feedback from a person owning the AET drainback system, AC powered
pump system with two collectors, and 120 gallon tank:
Gary, Love your site.
We have been using a Alternate Energy store kit for 3 years. I can turn off the
back-up for about 6 months of year and even on sunny January days the system
will run for a few hours to help out.
Two AET 4'x 8' Flat Panels, TACO 9 series pump, 10 gallon separate drain back
tank, 120 Gallon well insulated primary tank with single 3,500 watt element
mounted high in tank for back-up. Small tank fills atop the main tank so no
more space used than a non-solar setup.
Eagle Diff. Temp. controller W/ Display in Family Rm, second Goldline in
basement at tank, in series for protection from single and double fault
freezing. The second controller was my separate add for protection as I insist
on using straight RO water and No glycol. Water is more effective for several
reasons like better heat transfer and not sliming up the copper.
Panels are mounted on a 12/12 pitch single story roof and angled at 5 degrees
towards each other at top to self drain. We went for the bigger 120 gallon tank
as we are sited in Rochester NY which is not known for sunny days. But even
here the system is effective and components are good quality. It is comfortable
hearing the water cascade back to drain down tank as the pump shuts off. I did
also add a ball valve after pump to slow down velocity across the panels and to
lessen any chance of erosion of the copper pipes. Picture attached.
AP in NY
Feb 23, 2012
Gary February 22, 2012