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Active Open Loop Solar Water Heating System

10 years ago

My solar contractor installed our Active Open Loop Solar water system without any check valves in the lines that go to the collector panels. I've heard about thermosiphoning. My question is, how much loss would occur? If anyone has some experiences or personal information on this effect, please share. I'm in Hawaii and the night time temps are around high 70's. Would this be negligible loss for use so maybe thats why it wasn't installed?

Thanks.

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Comments (2)

klem1
10 years ago
IMO the trade off for slightly restricting flow 100% of the time isn't worth check valves for a small % of time during light/no demand.
magic
Original Author
10 years ago
Hi:

Thanks for the reply. I haven't been able to take a look at other systems so I can't add anymore comments. You bought up a good point about restricting flow so I decided to leave it alone.
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