[Greenbuilding] Solar thermal hot water messed up

[Reuben Deumling]

Four years is not long. There have been problematic water heater designs
with faulty dip tubes, but this may not be your situation. One really good
place to start with questions like this is the website set up by my friend
and water heater expert Larry Weingarten. waterheaterrescue.com

On Sun, May 24, 2015 at 12:39 PM, Ktottotc g POP <ktottotc at gmail.com> wrote:

> Thanks for this information. I have zero knowledge of what a dip tube is.
> Is there any way I can check it? (I’ll google it and see if I find
> anything.) Also is that a part that can break? That is, the tank has never
> been opened since the system was installed just about four years ago.
>
> On May 24, 2015, at 12:16 PM, Reuben Deumling <9watts at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Could you have a broken dip tube? A wild guess, but part of your scenario
> sounds like that to me: hottest water coming off the top of the storage
> tank, followed/interrupted by cold water that should have been introduced
> at the bottom of the tank if the dip tube is functioning.
>
> On Sun, May 24, 2015 at 11:10 AM, Ktot g <ktottotc at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Being a holiday weekend, I cannot reach my installer for a few days, thus
>> my question here.
>>
>> I have a solar thermal hot water system with (of course) panels, a large
>> tank, various pumps, and a Rinnai for backup.
>>
>> The Rinnai is not coming on as the meter I adjust to cause it to turn on
>> is set at 100 degrees and the temp is staying above that even though it’s
>> pretty cloudy out. So I’m thinking the Rinnai is not the problem.
>>
>> I can get very hot water; when the upstairs meter is at 140, for example,
>> the water is very hot, as it should be. But it lasts only two or so minutes
>> then gets cold. Obviously this makes for very short or very cold showers,
>> makes it hard to effectively wash dishes and so on.
>>
>> The pressure gauges by the tanks look fine to me (two tank ones around
>> 140, the pressure tank at 32—should be about 30. And the solar thermal
>> panel pumps are working (get hot, vibrate).
>>
>> There’s a Grundfoss pump just past the Rinnai that seems to always be
>> flashing between 6 watts and 0 gym, even when I turn on a faucet and run
>> hot water. So I’m wondering if that’s the problem.
>>
>> Or if there’s anything I can try to at least diagnose, if not fix, this
>> myself. I live very far from the installer so if I have to have him out
>> it’s going to cost me a fortune. Plus I prefer understanding how things
>> function, fixing them myself, if at all possible.
>>
>> Any suggestions?
>>
>>
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>
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