Mystery of hot water system. Does solar heat water or not?

Hello, all,

Metricon provided and installed Apricus electric boosted hot water system for my new house. However, it refused to work last Thursday. No hot water came out. A few days later, the electric element was replaced and I could get hot water again.

However, a mystery still remains in my mind. I can confirm that solar is working all the time. If just electric element fails, the water should be heated by solar in the daytime, which means I should get some hot water in the daytime which is heated by solar, is it correct? However, I can not get any single drop of hot water in the daytime. The temperature of the water in the tank stays at 12 degrees. Does it imply that the water is actually heated by electricity all the time, the solar never plays a role? That is, instead of getting a solar hot water system, what I have is actually electric hot water system.

It should be noted that most of these solar hot water systems in Victoria (esp Melbourne and southern areas) will be running off the elec/gas rather than the solar, especially in Winter, as we don't get a lot of sunlight during Winter. Most solar systems need SUNlight, not just daylight (if you get the drift) so they rely more on the backup than the solar.

I have no idea why, though, it is not heating during the day? I would get onto the manufacturer.