300 litre Solar HW with Gas B, Any probs for a large family

marybond2012 · Mar 13, 2012 12:53 pm

Hi All

My hubby and I have always lived with gas hot water and never solar hot water as we have always heard that it is unreliable. In the house we are building we have been given free solar hot water with a gas booster, do you think this will be reliable for a family of 5 because if not we would change it to gas hot water

???

Mclaren · Mar 13, 2012 1:04 pm

We have a solar hot water system with gas booster and haven't had any problems with it. The best thing has been the first gas bill - $81 compared to $400 when were were renting which had gas hot water and heating!! There are only two of us using our system but you shouldn't run out of water - you may need to get the bigger storage tank but just ask the supplier for more information if you're not sure ...

marybond2012 · Mar 13, 2012 1:32 pm

Mclaren

We have a solar hot water system with gas booster and haven't had any problems with it. The best thing has been the first gas bill - $81 compared to $400 when were were renting which had gas hot water and heating!! There are only two of us using our system but you shouldn't run out of water - you may need to get the bigger storage tank but just ask the supplier for more information if you're not sure ...

Hi Mclaren, thank you for getting back to me.. we have a 300litre water tank, do you think that is enough for the 5 of us

Mclaren · Mar 13, 2012 1:36 pm

Oh I don't know ... I'm at work so can't check what ours is ... you should ask an expert to be on the safe side....

adgn · Mar 13, 2012 2:05 pm

Just need a bit of math.

If you have a AAA rated(9L per minute) shower head then your 300L tank will run out in 33 minutes.

So if you have 2 bathrooms with showers and both are going at the same time with a family of 5 and everyone showering in the morning... you'll need to keep showers to roughly 6 mins per person.

Is the average 6 mins enough for everyone to have a shower? So it depends largely on the family.

Mclaren · Mar 13, 2012 2:11 pm

Here in Adelaide we are encouraged to keep showers to 4 minutes or less and were even given "sand timers" that attach to the glass - 4 minutes seems plenty. When we've had overseas visitors stay though they don't seem to realise we live in the driest state, in the driest continent ::sad::

adgn · Mar 13, 2012 2:24 pm

My showers are roughly 10 mins. Im very thorough(read: precious) ::hyst::

and brush my teeth in the shower whilst waiting for the conditioner to work ::cool::

And im male.

GardenofNeedn-58 · Mar 13, 2012 4:23 pm

it should be fine mary.
we also have 5 in our family - including 2 teenagers, and in our old place we had a 200L tank and
ours never run out in 33 minutes....that math is based on 9l/min of just hot water going thru.

we also got that offer from RI with the gb solar - very happy bout that

paulw11 · Mar 13, 2012 4:53 pm

Hi

Gas boosted solar units have an instantaneous gas heater on the side, so you can never run out of hot water - once the tank is depleted it just heats water as you need it until the sun reheats the water in the tank.

Paul

adgn · Mar 13, 2012 5:50 pm

Are you sure? I guess it would depend on how old the system is.

Ive seen some gas boosters at the bottom of the tank and only activate when the tank is low.

paulw11 · Mar 14, 2012 6:46 am

adgn

Are you sure? I guess it would depend on how old the system is.

Ive seen some gas boosters at the bottom of the tank and only activate when the tank is low.

All of the new gas-boosted solar systems that I have seen (Hills, Ecosmart, Bosch, Apricus) use an instantaneous heater - it is more efficient to heat just the water you need than to heat water in a tank that may not be needed. The instantaneous system only fires up when the tank temperature is low.

Paul