Solar Home Flat Plate Vs Evacuated Tube

[vc_row][vc_column width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]Flat Plate Vs Evacuated Tube

Solar Home has been in business since 2005 and is in the unique position to be able to offer its customers both flat plate collectors and evacuated tubes. Because of this we have no vested interest in which product our customer installs. However we do try and recommend the best solar solution for their particular needs.

The most common question over the last 8 years is ‘Which are better flat panels or tubes?’

Evacuated tubes are more efficient than flat plate collectors but this should not be confused with being better. Basically a smaller area of tubes delivers the same amount of hot water than a slightly larger area of flat panels.

If your system is designed and installed correctly there is no difference between the amount of hot water produced by either panels or tubes, the only  difference is you put in a slightly smaller area of tubes to deliver the same amount of hot water as a normally sized set of flat panels. See the examples below…..

Our evacuated tube system that has a gross area of 5.53m² delivers 63% of the hot water requirement for a family of 4 using a 300lt cylinder (click here to view independent software simulation)

Our flat plate system that has a gross area of 6.53m² delivers 64% of the hot water requirement for a family of 4 using a 300lt cylinder (click here to view independent software simulation)

When considering installing a solar water heating system ask the pertinent questions, many people have a vested interest in selling you a system that best suits their needs i.e. a higher profit margin for themselves. Ask these sales men for independent computer simulations to corroborate their claims about what the amount of hot water their systems can generate, remember talk is cheap but it could cost you a lot of money over the next 20-30 years!

Because of our large customer base and experience in the solar thermal industry we are continually being asked to inspect or repair installations from other companies, one of the biggest issues that we have come on is the under specification of the size of the collector area for the number of people in the house. The bottom line is if you have an area of tubes on your roof that is too small you will not achieve an effective and efficient amount of hot water from the system, no matter how good the sales person says they are![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_single_image image=”2495″ img_size=”full”][vc_single_image image=”2497″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column][/vc_row]