Looking for advise

[Worcester]

I know these guys cover most things here on electrical side and over yonder on their sister site for the leakies (aka plumbers) - good for biomass discussions . As we've expanded our range of work considerably, we're looking to gain and give advice on other areas - so where do the rest of you guys go to discuss solar thermal and heat pump installations? (If the mods'll let you say )

 

[Marvo]

I'm sure it's fine to discuss other forums but maybe avoid direct links.

I'd suggest refrigeration or HVAC/HVACR forums for heat pumps.

http://www.refrigeration-engineer.com/forums/

 

[jason121]

Most heat pumps installed are mono blocks so need for FGAS. Its all about the heat load for a good designed system. Making sure the emitters are correctly sized helps a lot too.

 

[Worcester]

@Jason thanks for that, we've done a lot of designs and installs now, also we're fgas as we also do splits and have done quote a few air-air recently as well (great for conservatories) , it more the technical aspects of particular bits of kit that catch us out, even having been on the manufacturers courses.

@Marvo, thx also, I'd found that one and found it quite useful too thought I might have missed one or two though..

I'm sure others will have some ideas as well.

 

[jason121]

What in particular is catching you out. I work with some good fridge guys, who install large commercial cold stores using open drive and semi hermetic compressors.
We are working on using the latent heat from the condensers to heat the farmers swimming pool.

 

[Worcester]

Nothing specific at the moment, everything seems to be going well, though I know sometime in the future a problem will occur my f-gas guys are well experienced, so we're happy to take on most challenges. Some of our customers have large numbers of heatpumps and air-con, and I know we're going to get called out to own with some weird fault or other in the not too distant future, so was just looking for the best sources, like this site is for sparkies ( So now I've got sparkies, leakies and coolies working for us )

We are working on using the latent heat from the condensers to heat the farmers swimming pool.

I like that idea

 

[Marvo]

The problem with faultfinding modern fgas heatpumps is that you need someone who knows refrigeration, PLC's and electronic control systems as well as good electrical theory. Probably nearly 70% of the HVACR problems we encounter are electrical or control based faults. Then you also get problems with integration when systems are connected or interlocked which is another ballgame entirely.

 

[jason121]

Mr Worcester. Which Heat pump do you find the best to work with.

 

[Gavin A]

I've been wondering the same thing, as we're now getting into biomass, heatpumps and thermodynamic panels, plus the solar water heating.

Navitron do cover all of this on their forums, and there are a few experienced renewable heating guys on there, but it is 90% enthusiastic amateurs - though some of them really do know their stuff, it can be a bit hard to separate the wheat from the chafe.

To be honest, it annoys me a bit that this forum and the renewables plumbing forum aren't actually linked, I can't be arsed registering a 2nd account and checking both forums, and that forum doesn't seem very active, so I'd probably just be asking those questions on here in the sun lounge or something as I know there's quite a fair few on here who do some or all of solar water heating, biomass and heatpumps, probably more than seem to be regulars on the plumbers forums.

 

[Marvo]

If you feel the Photovoltaic / Solar Panels & Green Energy Forum needs expanding or rearranging somehow then please feel free to debate any changes you'd like and motivate them.

I'm guessing this forum was created in response to the PV boom after FIT's were introduced in the UK and obviously during that boom all the other renewables probably took a back seat. Now the PV seems to have slowed down maybe an fgas/HVACR sub-forum would be appropriate for heatpumps and heat recovery systems and the like and maybe a solar-thermal and/or bio-mass sub forum would be appropriate if you feel there's sufficient interest/popularity.

 

[The Solar King]

Due to the level of professionalism and expertise on this forum, an expansion to link to renewable heat would be really beneficial.

A heat lounge would be helpful as well.

We do ST and are actively considering heat pumps due to experience with central heating and building renovation. Off on course next week.

 

[Marvo]

I'm afraid you're going to have to deliver suggestions in laymens terms, most of the forum staff including the owner aren't very clued up on these systems.

Due to the level of professionalism and expertise on this forum, an expansion to link to renewable heat would be really beneficial.

Are you proposing a 'renewable heat' sub forum? What systems exactly would 'renwable heat' encompass?

A heat lounge would be helpful as well.

When you say heat lounge are you meaning a second limited, trade only access, lounge? Could the existing sun-lounge not be rebadged to cover this need?

We do ST and are actively considering heat pumps due to experience with central heating and building renovation. Off on course next week.

As I warned, I'm pretty lame when it comes to renewable technologies so I have some questions, are systems such as heat-pump water heaters and solar thermal water heaters separate systems or do you get hybrid systems that could consist of ST, heat-pump and maybe even bio-mass all rolled into one package?

 

[Gavin A]

I think it's a bit of an odd one, because with renewables we all increasingly tend to be renewables (and energy efficiency) specialists, a specialism that combines traditional skill sets from electrical, roofing, heating and plumbing.

These forums are split down the traditional lines of the different trades, so while it would be good to have a renewable heat sub forum on here (which would be my suggestion), by doing that we'll be excluding the potential for advice from time served plumbers / heating engineers / hvac specialists that might be available if the forum were also linked with the plumbing forums.

So my suggestion would be to rebrand this forum as 'Solar PV, renewable heat and energy efficiency'.

If there becomes enough threads to justify it, maybe there could be a renewable heat sub forum.

but for it to be really useful we may need to actually encourage a few experienced heating / hvac engineers onto the forums.

 

[Marvo]

It's kinda chicken and egg I guess but if for example there was an fgas or HVACR sub forum then in time experienced guys will be lead here by SEO and inbound links from other forums etc. Obviously it takes a bit of time so the new sub-forums would be low volume for a while until it starts to snowball.

 

[Worcester]

There's some good advice on the UKPlumbersforums re Heating design, ch problems, renewable energy and biomass, however the renewable including biomass are not especially active areas, and the plumbing industry is very clearly split amongst advocates (very few) and nay sayers.(loads..)

Over here, those that have been in renewables for a while are much more open minded and receptive to new ideas

So a sub-forum for renewable heating which would cover solar thermal, heat pumps (all types) and biomass would be a good option.

Gaving mentioned the other forum (and they don;t like you mentioning any others at all !!) and as he has pointed out it is very much orientated around the enthusiastic diyer, which is of course their roots.