solar hot water
Why pay money to heat water when sunlight is such an abundant resource?
Efficient and well designed Solmate solar hot water systems provide a year round, environmentally friendly and practical alternative to electric and gas hot water systems. 
Do you rent out your villa? Is the house a holiday home? Do you manage a hotel?
In these situations, hot water for sanitary, clothes and dish washing is one of the greater expenditures. Furthermore, water heating is often restricted by the supply of gas bottles or an unreliable electrical supply. Say goodbye to those bills and gas bottles and develop your own power plant!
Our Solmate solar energy products enjoy the highest level of quality and durability in the industry as demonstrated by their Solar Keymark certification. Our systems will provide constant high pressurised hot water for you home or business.
solmate solar water heaters - the options
As water is heated by the solar collector it can be stored in a cylinder above the collector in what is known as a compact system. Alternatively, the tank may be located elsewhere in your property, such as in the utility room or garage. This allows greater capacity, while placing the tank out of the sight and making it easier to maintain. This method is known as a pumped system.
As the name suggests a small thermostatically controlled pump exchanges fluid between tank and collector. Both compact and pumped systems provide mains pressure hot water.
compact hot water systems
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the sandwich | the selective | the vacuum |
pumped hot water systems - how do they work?
The heating fluid is pumped via a heat exchanger from the bottom of the stainless steel tank, where water is coolest, to the collector where it is heated.
The heated fluid then returns to the top of the storage cylinder and transfers that heat to the potable water which is then available for use. All tanks are equipped with a second heat exchanger for connection to your existing boiler and an electrical heating element.
The system is controlled by a Solar Station that is equipped with a circulation pump, thermostatic controller and a filling loop along with pressure gauges and a safety valve.
The pumped system comes with a choice of solar collectors...
solar collectors
Solar collectors come in 2 distinct types: vacuum tubes, which are more suited to households and businesses which experience a large usage of hot water and flatplates which are best suited to smaller households where demand is not so high, particularly in Winter.
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the sandwicha flatplate collector |
the selectivea flatplate collector |
the vacuuma vacuum collector |
compact hot water
The compact solar hot water system
All of the components that can make the move to solar energy a more expensive option are not needed with our compact systems. The solar collector and tank can be simply incorporated into your existing hot water system.
A compact system requires no electric circulation pump, no electronic controller, no temperature sensors and no replacement tank.
how does it work?
The water circulates naturally between the tank and the solar collector because of differences in water temperature. For correct functioning the tank must be placed higher than the collector. The system has a closed circuit filled with water and a anti-corrosive/anti-freeze solution.
The system can either be installed on your roof (for holiday homes, camp sites or places to be used mainly in the summer period) or with the tank under the roof for better insulation during winter months. The tank comes fitted with a 2kW electric immersion heater to supplement the solar and it can also be fitted as a pre-heating system to a conventional boiler.
This is the perfect solution for the self-builder or d.i.y. enthusiast, easy to assemble and can be fully installed within one day.
Now available in the UK & Ireland direct from Solmate Solar Energy