Evacuated solar hot water heaters

Solar hot water solutions

The SALA Group has never offered traditional 'flat plate' solar hot water heaters with our kit homes because of the inefficiencies of this technology, coupled with the monopolisation of the solar hot water industry over the past 20 plus years which resulted in artificially high prices in Australia. However, developments over the past 5 years have resulted in a number of international suppliers entering the Australian market with traditional and non traditional solar hot water products. We believe that it is this competition that has resulted in more competitive pricing and the availability of more efficient hot water technologies.

As well as testing traditional 'flat plate' solar hot water heaters The SALA Group has also trialed and researched evacuated tube solar hot water heaters and have found them to be the extremely efficient, cost effective and durable.

Evacuated solar hot water technology was originally developed in Australia, with the rights to the technology sold to a Chinese company in the 1990's. It is only in recent years that this technology has found its way back to Australia with a handful of suppliers now offering this technology to Australian consumers.

During 2006 and 2007 SALA Homes trialed the use of the Hills Endless Solar hot water heaters with some of our customers and in some of our own homes. However we experienced regular tube breakages during transit, along with inadequate replacement, logistical and installation support for our customers. Once installed the tubes were quite robust, with no 'after installation' breakages reported to date. Although the tubes are made of glass they are able to withstand heavy hail storms and we have installed them on homes in the cyclone-prone areas of Cooktown, Cairns, Townsville and Mackay with no problems reported to date.

Early on we were guilty of over sizing the systems in areas with high levels of solar exposure. The experience gained during the trial phase has resulted in cost savings for our customers as we are now better able to size the systems for specific areas. In tropical areas such as Cairns, Mackay and Broome, a 10 tube system is more than adequate, while the sub tropical areas, like South East Queensland and parts of Western Australia generally only require a 20 tube system. The southern states and areas around Perth are better suited to the 30 tube systems.

Since early 2007 we have been trialing the Apricus systems, as an alternative product to the Hills Endless Solar system. Even though they are based on the same technology as the Endless Solar systems we believe that a number of minor modifications have resulted in more efficient systems and certainly more cost effective. More importantly, the level of customer support has been exceptional and the number of tube breakages during transit have been minimal.

While relatively new to Australia, Apricus is a global company with its own manufacturing plants which gives it significant cost, technological and quality control advantages over many other evacuated tube solar hot water manufacturers around the world.

Habitat Hardware now supplies SALA homes with a 20 tube Apricus evacuated tube solar hot water heater as a standard inclusion with every kit home. The standard system can be varied depending on size of the family living in the home and the solar exposure of the location in which the house is being built.

Habitat Hardware also supplies and installs systems to homeowners around the country wishing to upgrade their existing electric, gas or solar hot water heaters.

Very generous rebates are available from the federal and most state governments, as well as some local councils throughout Australia. On top of the rebates are Renewable Energy Certificates can be generated and sold from the systems once they are installed. In some cases, the rebates and the sale of the RECs result in the system being installed with no end cost to the customer!

Developments overseas (particularly in North America) have resulted in a number of unique applications of the evacuated solar tube technology which are now available in Australia. These include:

• Low energy space heating solutions using Hydraunic in-floor heating and floor mounted radiators;
• Highly efficient heat exchangers for air conditioning applications; and
• Large industrial and commercial hot water applications, for the likes of:
  • Commercial laundries and kitchens;
  • Factories;
  • Sporting clubs; and
  • Caravan parks, hotels and motels
  

For more information on evacuated tube solar hot water heaters, the available rebates and the easy finance options available contact the Habitat Hardware sales team or your SALA Homes Sales Agent.