Solar Immersion - my experience !

[danesol]

Hi

i gave us using their product but I am still chasing them for a refund. I contacted them for a refund but they have not replied. I contacted their main office , sent many emails but still no replies.
Tushar is always travelling and never answers his phone.

thanks.

Well two on this thread seem to have had issues resolved by email/voice contact already, so I would keep trying if I was you.....

 

[danesol]

OK UPDATE, the GAS boiler is now back on due to the recent weather... so that's a definite 6mths of using NO gas at all to heat the HWC, saving 1,346kwhs of GAS equal to ~ £ 46 saving


I have a way of measuring the divert now, so should know exactly what the SI diverts from the Solar panels over the Autumn and Winter mths, which will give me the full extent of what actually is been saved.

 

[Worcester]

Isn't the daily / monthly/ yearly savings one of the display functions on the SI then?

 

[danesol]

Isn't the daily / monthly/ yearly savings one of the display functions on the SI then?

LOL, sadly NOT so if you want info' to substantiate your purchase or backup the pub-talk .... your out of luck !

I should imagine - extensive reporting will be part of the MK IV ?

As they say you get what you pay for, but I am really pleased with my mk3 purchase and its saving both resources and my money, which is very apparent from recent bills, reporting is nice but at the end of the day, as long as its saving you monies, that's what its all about.

 

[danesol]

Yes, looks like the GAS is to stay on now with this terrible weather, but the SI unit is nicely preheating the water as and when it can - come on Mr Sun, show your face - 161watts just isnt good enough ! lol

 

[Sunstroker]

You may recall that I reported that my SolarImmersion unit failed a week after installation and was returned to the manufacturers, who promised an upgraded replacement. Well, 21 days and three phone calls later the replacement duly arrived and is now refitted and working. The reason given for the protracted delay was that they were awaiting delivery of the upgraded components. The unit arrived with a note thanking me for my patients (sic). Let’s hope their electronics are better than their spellchecker!


The second unit in my son’s house continues to function satisfactorily. It is powering only one immersion, my own is driving two, and there was a suggestion from the SolarImmersion contact to whom I initially reported the failure of my unit that this might be the reason for its failure. Not exactly reassuring!


The immersion switch neon still glows at full intensity when the water temperature in the HWC is higher than the setting on the immersion stat and the PV is off, so the upgrade hasn’t addressed this peculiarity, but if that’s the only quibble we can live with it.


As I mentioned earlier, the reason for the superheated water is the presence of an efficient woodburning stove in my system, and it is clear that the SolarImmersion will only really have a dual immersion water heating job to do in the summer months, when the woodburner is out. It burns more or less continuously from October to April, supplying most of my central heating and ample hot water for my needs. (I am fortunate in having an ample supply of effectively free firewood).


But the winter sunshine will still supply surplus PV power, so how to use it? I propose substituting a storage heater as the secondary load, instead of one of the immersions. Any ideas on how best to wire such a setup? Can I use a changeover switch? Given that I now have a spare slot in my CU where one of my immersions used to be I presume this could be used as the feed for the storage heater.
I haven’t discussed any of this with my sparky so far, and no doubt he will have his own ideas as to the best solution, but I’d welcome suggestions to throw at him!

 

[danesol]

But the winter sunshine will still supply surplus PV power, so how to use it? I propose substituting a storage heater as the secondary load, instead of one of the immersions. Any ideas on how best to wire such a setup? Can I use a changeover switch? Given that I now have a spare slot in my CU where one of my immersions used to be I presume this could be used as the feed for the storage heater.
I haven’t discussed any of this with my sparky so far, and no doubt he will have his own ideas as to the best solution, but I’d welcome suggestions to throw at him!

Did you action this at all ??

 

[Sunstroker]

Yes, and all is working well, or at least it would be if the sun would shine a bit more. 233Wh yesterday! I'd get more heat from a tealight!
I see someone else has discovered my "lit neon" syndrome, so it would appear that this is common to all SI units.

I mentioned earlier that one of our two original units failed and was eventually replaced by an "upgraded" one. I notice a slight difference between the two units. With the first one, the immersion switch neon glows steadily when the unit is diverting, irrespective of the rate of diversion, whereas the upgraded unit produces a flickering neon on the switch, and the diversion rate appears to vary in a cyclical fashion according to the unit's LCD readout.

Communication with the manufacturers continues to be frustrating. I phoned and asked for a proper VAT invoice, as I was only supplied with a Paypal receipt, but despite promises nothing has materialised. I fear for any kind of long-term support.

 

[HJG1]

A word of warning. Have purchased the Solarimmersion via their website on 21st April 2014. Received email notification of dispatched item 24th April ,but in fact they had not actally sent to item at that stage. Eventually received the item the following week only to find the item was faulty staright out of the box. The triac was actually broken from the unti so it was obvious straight away. Phone company same day- they could not sent a repalcement that week so I cancelled the order for full refund. Item was sent back and I waited , and waited for refund- none came. I email and phoned, but no refund. Had to go via Paypal to get my money back- event hen the company did not respond.
Now have an Immersun II installed and working perfectly. Lesson learned- pay a bit more for quality and service!

 

[nielfrancis]

Hi there,
Read this and checked with a couple of my electrician friends who are using Solarimmersion. They found it somewhat strange when I mentioned about the "triac" as there is no triac in it. They have been using it since a year and are happy with the results.
Sad to hear your experience although good luck with your new choice!

 

[danesol]

I've managed to organise a discount code for forum members for these units !!!

So if you are going to order one in the foreseeable future - please use the following code on checkout;

dis2204





SolarImmersion - Surplus Solar Energy Water Heater |

Well over 12mths on, the unit is working well and making use of every bit of surplus energy in the property. The GAS boiler which heats the DHW normally is off completely and has been since the spring equinox - really pleased with the unit todate.

 

[MicraShed]

I have the Immersun and some days just cant physically use the hot water it produces.

Increasing the tank insulation has meant water dropping from around 70 degrees to about 50 overnight - some of that cooling is due to cold water filling the DHW tank after a night time bath.

I too have had my GCH switched off since April.

 

[tdrees]

Hi Folks, I have just turned up my solar immersion III last week. As with others, lots of hot water!


Power is being successfully diverted to the immersion heater, and the load balanced with input reasonably well.


Two issues I would like to correct.


1) When the solar output drops suddenly (cloud cover) or the house load increases (kettle), it can take some time for the solarimersion to recognise the change and reduce or cease diversion to the immersion heater. I have the "export level" setting configured to "20w" to give some buffer, but the balance point seems to be around ) (judged by looking at my household meter (spinning disk variety). The unit is installed in the airing cupboard after the power switch to the immersion and has UTP cat5e cable connecting it to the sensor.


Are there any settings I can adjust to improve the PV output matching?


2) Due the the nature of my PV set up (east west house with 2 banks of panels) my peak output for my system is about 2.2Kw, but usually around 1.8Kw. As I am writing this (9:40am) I am seeing about 1300w from the PV. My base house load is between 300w and 400w (too many standby gadgets) so I have at peak around 1.5 to 1.9Kw inject into the tank.


The Solar immersion display seems to divert starting at 8% and then 13%. I have seen a situation where the unit oscillates between 8% and 13%, alternatively exporting an importing from the grid.


If I set the immersion heater load at 1500W, will i get better quantisation on the export balancing?


Anyone know?

 

[danesol]

Well I 've set my unit up exactly how it tells you too in the manual(s) and i have no issues whatsoever - ours reacts immediately !

The only option we haven't had chance to utilise yet is the 2nd output

 

[tdrees]

Thanks Danesol,

Mine is setup as per the manual too. Perhaps there is an element of distance from the sensor, as we are using the cat5 extended model rather than a short link to the meter box and long tail to the immersion.

I am interested to know if anyone else sees the "ossicaltion" when exporting small amounts of power.

Tobes