Hello all, first post. I've joined as I'm interested to see how these products perform, with a view to installing one to make use of our surplus PV.
OK See my earlier post about possible testing the S & G Wooldridge device
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Due to the lack of printed technical information for the Wooldridge device I have gone with the IMMERSUN Contoller by 4 Eco ltd.
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I took delivery 7 days ago and I must say this device is very well made.There are two pictures of the device posted on different supplier sites and these may be confusing.The 4 Eco ltd site is the actual production device and is manufactured of steel and powder coated in a beige finish.
I spoke to their technical guy and he confirmed that earlier earlier device was an abs case and that the steel outer case of the production units have a much better durability and is better dispersing any build up of heat.
Ok down to my first impressions. The device comes with all of the necessary fixing fittings and a very detailed User & Installation booklet. Nicely printed and in colour with actual screen shots.
The whole installation took me less than an two hours but you guys out there will be much quicker(I'm the wrong side of 70 & retired!!)
I decided to isolate the Device both I/P & O/P with DP MK grid switches because I have been testing several types of these devices and it does make the whole job neat & tidy and easy to connect.
Now for the results from my observations.
I decided to totally turn off the Gas Central Heating boiler that supplies the indirect cylinder to see if the spare exported surplus power was enough to heat the water.So far it has supplied all that we have required.
I have put a digital thermometer, placed a third of the way down the hot water tank which is sized 1050mm x 450mm just to keep an eye on the water temperature.
I noticed that between the last thing at night 11.30pm and 7am next morning the water temperature had lost on average 20 degrees C.
To rectify this I retro fitted an extra tied on a Mangers tank jacket, even though the tank has original insulation, also foam pipe insulation on all the pipes connected to the tank. This has reduced the heat lost overnight to about 3 degrees.
Back to the IMMERSUN. A weeks useage my impressions are that the device is excellent.I have tracked its output and response time and it reacts very quickly to changing PV output power and changing demand within the house . The temperature of the devices case is very low but the maximum power level fed to the immersion has been a maximum of 2.2 kw due to the lack of sunshine here in Berkshire. I don't think the case temperature will be an issue at all, even at its maximum rating of 3.2kw.
In any event the device has an internal over temperature safety cut off provided to protect the circuitry.
The device has a very clear blue backlite two line display.
When the device is supplying the load with power the display sequences HEATING WATER (Output in Watts);HEATING WATER (Current Time & Date) and (Today Kwh & Total Kwh).There is also a flashing green led in this mode.
When there is not enough exported power to supply the load the led shows orange and the lcd screen shows (Waiting)
When the tank thermostat opens for a full tank of hot water the lcd dispaly shows (Water Hot)
If you want to bypass the exported power to another device when the hot water is satisfied then there is an option to wire several other loads (Storage Heaters etc) via an internal relay contact capable of switching 3kw /16amps.
The is also a Hot water boost function that can also be timed to provive power to the immersion heater if required.
There is also provision to control the Central Heating Boiler to boost the water temperature when the PV exported output is not enough to heat the water.
I can see this facility being very useful in the winter months to give the maximum efficiency of the combined water heating of Gas & Exported power.
All connections to the device are by screw /clamp connectors , all very neat and tidy.
There are two ways of cable case entry, via the bottom with clamp entry glands and via a cut out in the back face of the case but I found you will need to space the device off the wall by about 4mm to give enough extra cable clearance if you are running the cables on the wall surface via truncking( bearing in mind this device will mostly be install next to the consumer fuse box and cable exit to the Immersion heater from the 16A mcb.
I shall be testing this device for about a couple of months and will report back with more results.
Any other info please comment
