I need a Solar powered water heater fitted in Tenerife

[conandina]

We would like to have a solar powered water heater fitted - with the solar panel and tank on roof of villa. Can anybody recommend any suppliers or fitters of these? Can you say whether your experience is personal or otherwise?

Thanks in advance.

[conandina]

No plumbers on the forum then?

[poker]

They sell them at Chafiras (the fereteria ) .
Jut put it on youre roof and connect a few pipes with pump and you have hot water.

They seem to be more used in Gran Canaria were every house nearly has them.
Maybe the local munacipalities or government gave a subsidy at a time for them tere.

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[conandina]

Thank you poker for your reply. I guess you are right that we can just buy one at Chafiras but I'm afraid our skills don't extend to connecting pipes and pumps so still looking for somebody who could help to get it fitted. Also "just put it on the roof" sounds easy to say but doing it might be a bit more difficult.

[Faraway]

Actually - I know this is slightly different but can't think why everyone has hot water boilers here when a normal electric shower like in the Uk would be so much more cost effective - perhaps we can't get them here?

[atlantico]

Actually - I know this is slightly different but can't think why everyone has hot water boilers here when a normal electric shower like in the Uk would be so much more cost effective - perhaps we can't get them here?

but you'd still need one for other hot water ie. wash basin, sink

[Angusjim]

Actually - I know this is slightly different but can't think why everyone has hot water boilers here when a normal electric shower like in the Uk would be so much more cost effective - perhaps we can't get them here?

Think the sub main cables & mains infrastucture to apartments / complexes would struggle with capacity if people were sticking in 9kw showers.

[Pooh]

Those guys sell and install solar panel heaters:

http://berpau.com/

Honestly, I don't understand why not every single house, at least in South Tenerife, has one...
When we lived in Cyprus, there wasn't a house which didn't have it. After the initial cost it's virtually free and almost unlimited hot water. (Except early mornings - but we're never up that early.)

[conandina]

Thanks Faraway but I thing Atlantico2 is right the electricity wouldn't cope with them.

Thanks also Pooh, I agree - don't know why more folk don't have them. The cost will soon pay for itself I'm sure and also it will save running out of water when we have a few guests staying.

Thanks for the link Pooh - this is probably the sort of thing we need - anybody know of anybody similar in the South of the island?

Alternatively still looking for a plumber who could help to fit.

Cheers

[Faraway]

Would be interesting to try it and see what happens tho'. As to sinks etc, I usually boil a kettle for washing up as it's a lot quicker by the time I've wasted loads of water waiting for it to run warm!

[atlantico]

we never turn our water heater off. it actually works out cheaper to keep it on rather than turning on/off as required. That way the heater only kicks in for a short time to 'top up' the heat, but turning on/off means it has to heat up all 60L from cold each time !

Anyone have an idea of costs of solar panels ?

[poker]

If i remember it was something like 1200 € at chafiras .

Probably there is a lot of differance depending on make , quality and capasety also .
Same like with standard electric heaters.

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[tmfkahs]

My understanding of why solar panels are not popular here is down to the quality of the water. As we all can see, Cal is a major problem. The first attempt at popularising this type of water heater ran into problems when the pipes circulating the heating water clogged up.

Recently there seems to have been a revival, so whether this problem has now bee rectified, and how long will it be before it can be said that it has clearly been corrected.

For an initial outlay of approximately €2.000,00 for the unit and installation, it would need to be working for 10 years, imo, to ensure it has been good value. The recent increase in panels probably started 5 years ago. The Jury is still out.

[Faraway]

Actually, I use an Ecoflow item on my water heater called H2Flow which is a heavy duty magnet and doesn't allow the cal to settle. It has been fantastic! You're supposed to put them on where the water first enters the house but I can't get to that so have put it just before the boiler instead. They also do a Bioflow which you put on the car engine and it saves petrol and helps the engine to run cleaner. Check out -http://www.discoverymagnets.co.uk/ecoflow_water.htmck out.
I honestly think these things would solve all the problems we've been discussing as regards water particularly.

[conandina]

Thanks to everybody for all their comments but whilst your magnets might solve the cal settling problem it doesn't solve my problem of needing a plumber or somebody to help install a system. C'mon plumbers where are you?

[Muppet]

As already mentioned, the large ferrateriers sell these units - Chafiras, Hidrolica and so on. Without doubt they will have an installation service and/or list of authorised installers which you will need to ensure warrenties stay valid.

Go ask !

The panels are several thousand Euros though, installation will require cherry pickers to lift it on the roof, so probably also not cheap - certainly compared to a bottle of gas.

[Colincbayley]

You need Frank from www.frankiefixit.com

A decent bloke, fair charges and a quality job for Aircon, Solar and Electrics.

Email: Info@frankiefixit.com