Solar Assisted Heating Package from Urban Energy Australasia

This new development is a 5 bedroom ecologically sustainable project located in Roseville Chase, NSW. The client was interested in a combined solar assisted heating package, to effectively heat the house via independently zoned under floor hydronic heating, heat the domestic hot water and heat the pool and spa.

The system decided on was a solar and gas combination storage and heat exchanger system. The underfloor heating system was to be installed inside the slab, and be managed with an electronic thermostat system. The pool heating system was to be run in automatic solar mode for the majority of time but also to have the option to heat the pool and spa independently using a Natural Gas.

Objectives

To efficiently heat the dwelling, hot water, pool and spa using a single combination system
To utilise as much solar as possible in all heating modes
To effectively control the flow of heat and maintain efficiency of the system

System Design

The system installed is a dual tank, 4 solar collector, Latento System. The system is controlled by a dedicated control board and links seamlessly with a pool Jandy controller.

The basic principle of the hot water, hydronics (underfloor heating) and pool heating system is as follows:

Heat from the sun is collected by the solar collectors
This heat is stored in the stratified storage tanks
An additional gas boost also services the tank, keeping the temperature above the set point temperature
When home space heating is required, this stored heat is distributed among the heated areas in the house via a programmable thermostat system.
When Hot water is required, it picks up heat through the heat exchanger
When Solar heat reject is required, heat is directed to a heat exchanger where it heats the pool water
When extra pool heating is required, a natural gas high efficiently boiler is utilised to heat the pool water directly.

Outcome

Urban Energy successfully designed, installed and commissioned this Solar / Gas heating system. The installation process operated smoothly, in a timely manner within budget costing.

The system has been operating successfully for over 4 months and has saved a significant quantity of greenhouse gasses for the offset heating costs of the dwelling.