solar heater trouble

Doug Stockman
Penfield, NY

T_Bone's probably who you need. He's been AWOL lately. Hope he's doing OK.

The systems I just removed had a similar device that would turn on the circulation pump when the temp differential was reached. Then turn it off. Pretty simple. I found several problems with the initial installation even though these had been defunct for the last 15 yrs at least, if they ever worked very well. Collectors were long gone. All I wanted was the remaining hardware. Lots of old systems around here to scavenge. My next house is where all this is intended.

Troubleshooting would be to check the sensor inputs, Delta 10 output, and the pump(s). You say the Delta 10 isn't working but I assume you mean the whole system isn't working, right?

Nice to see I guessed wrong. The systems I see around here never work, after 15-20 years of no maintenance.

Without knowing more about your system I wouldn't hazard a guess but typically antifreeze was used in the continuous systems. The other choice being drain-down, to empty the collector for freezing temps. I've never understood why they got used, and often failed. If you have a liquid-to-liquid heat exchanger for domestic hot water, probably you have antifreeze. Drain some off to check.

Some of the high end ones used freon. Haven't seen one here but my bro-in-law in Phoenix bought one. Connections are obviously very different.

You might want to wander around

• Here