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Solar panels – is there anything I can do with them?

 
Solar Photovoltaic (PV)
Last Post by David999 2 years ago
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 David999
(@david999)
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Joined: 3 years ago
Posts: 348
Topic starter 19/05/2024 8:16 pm   [#1553]

Picked three of these up for nothing, are they any use do you think and if so could I link them in with my navitron evacuated tube panel. The pipework is much larger on them though.  Or just skip them.

IMG 2924

 



   
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Transparent
 Transparent
(@transparent)
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Posts: 3430
20/05/2024 10:25 am  

Without knowing the temperature characteristics of your existing Navitron Solar-Thermal array, I don't think any of us could answer that.

A: These panels would provide excellent input for a separate circuit in a greenhouse.
I would be raising them to a high angle in order to be better suited to winter sunshine.

B: Please don't 'skip them'.
Go to the mapping tool for the Transition Towns network and locate groups near to you.
They are very likely to have better ideas of how to usefully deploy them!


Save energy... recycle electrons!


   
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 David999
(@david999)
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Posts: 348
Topic starter 20/05/2024 10:40 am  

@transparent my navitron 20 tube system was installed 25 years ago by me and it supplies me with most of my water during the year. In the winter perhaps 30c.  Two tubes were damaged when my roof was damaged and getting replacements is difficult since nobody will ship them, so I stuck an advert out there and these came up. My navitron is 10mm and these 22mm so no idea if they will match, but I have three of them and I hate waste so will find a use for them somewhere. My garage roof is massive and strong enough to whack them next to the navitron panel but wasn’t sure if compatible since intended to control them with the sensor in the navitron and associated bits.



   
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Transparent
 Transparent
(@transparent)
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20/05/2024 12:07 pm  

I believe that the founders of Navitron retired.
But its products are still available through some of their established installers.

One such as Stoves & Solar at Oakham, LE15 6RB.
I obtained two replacement solar-thermal evacuated tubes from them a while back.
We simply arranged to meet at a car-park (about 12-miles from me) whilst they were en-route to do an installation in Cornwall.
That avoids the problem of tube-necks being broken by couriers.

 

2: The issue of operating these three new flat-radiator panels alongside your existing vacuum-tube array is not only one of pipe-size.

Larger pipe sizes tend to be used when the heat transfer to the water is slower.
Large pipes have less flow.

The 10mm pipes on your existing Navitron array are an indication that the heat transfer is fast.

You need to know (or work out) the input/output temperature differential for the thermal panels you've just picked up.

 


Save energy... recycle electrons!


   
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 David999
(@david999)
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Joined: 3 years ago
Posts: 348
Topic starter 20/05/2024 12:21 pm  

@transparent that’s true navitron no longer exists and the forum gone as well.  It’s been a great system and I shall keep looking for another to either use as spares or alongside mine. But I will continue my investigation into whether these can be coupled to mine.  With two tubes missing mine is putting out 45c at the minute normally be up at 60c.  One of my more splendid projects. 

you are a wealth of knowledge and so kind of you to share it 😊



   
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