Swimming Pools - North East

Solar Energy

Trutec in partnership with First Light Energy are proud to be designing and installing The Sun Stream Range of Solar Collectors offering a renewable energy source to your heating, pool and hot water requirements. We now boast the most complete range of solar collectors available today. Its highly efficient vacuum tube collectors are now recognised as the best and most cost effective solar collectors on the market. Now the company has added to its extensive range, a brilliant new slim profile flat plate collector.

Vacuum Tube Collectors

The unique “Sun Stream Solar Water Heaters”, co-developed with the New Energy Centre of Peking University, are produced in a state-of-the-art manufacturing centre. Sun Stream vacuum collectors use a triple coated absorber that converts up to 96% of the energy captured. The circular design presents a perpendicular absorber area throughout the day and the reflected solar radiance from behind maximises the free energy available.

Product Summary

Solar Thermal Hot Water Heating with Sun Stream Vacuum Tubes

Flexible modular design with a range of panel sizes to suit applications from domestic housing through to large commercial installations.
Uses the most efficient technology available today (94-96%)
Uses heat pipe energy transfer system for ease of installation and maintenance.
Has a working temperature of up to 250°C
Has a service life of at least 25-30 years
Substantially reduces CO2 emissions
Produces Energy at the lowest cost per KW
EN Certificate No EN 12975-1/2

Clear Skies Accredited

Specifications

Vacuum Tubes

Sun Stream vacuum collectors use a triple coated absorber that converts up to 96% of the energy captured. The circular design presents a perpendicular absorber area throughout the day and reflected solar radiance from behind maximises the free energy available. The advantage of this technology is improved thermal efficiency, lower emittance rate and a working efficiency in high temperatures of up to 250°C; High quality borosilicate glass is used throughout.

Manifold and Frame

The manifold and frame are made of high-grade galvanised steel, finished in a textured black powdered coating, designed for long life. The reflector plates are produced from aluminium also on a galvanised steel frame.

The insulation within the manifold is injected high-grade polyurethane foam.
The copper tube (male) in and out is 3/4" or 1" BSP. All fittings are stainless steel.
Heat pipe technology is used to ensure ease and speed of installation whilst ensuring high efficiency of the system.

Sun Stream technical information
Absorption 0.94-0.96
Emittance 0.04
Stagnation Temperature 250ºC
Solar radiance exposure 2.46MJ/m2
Average heat loss co-efficient 0.60W/m2 x C
Vacuum 3 x 10-3 Pa
Operating pressure 1.5 Bar

Explanatory Notes: -

Absorber Area is 50% of the total of the 360% absorber surfaces of the vacuum tube
Aperture Area is the Gross area occupied by the vacuum tubes i.e. the panel size less the top and bottom manifolds

Flat Plate Collectors

Designed for First Light Energy and manufactured in Europe to the highest specifications, this modular collector complements perfectly the "Sun Stream" range of vacuum tube collectors. One of the most efficient flat plate collectors on the market, its sleek profile and neat appearance make it ideal for domestic installations, where design and aesthetics are important. It is available with a wide range of mountings including roof integration.Also available are large size collectors between 3sqm and 18sqm as well as custom made models.

All collectors are fully approved to EN 12975-1/2 as well as holding the European Key mark standard.

Product Summary

Flat Plate Solar Thermal Technology
Top quality materials used throughout
Lightweight construction for ease of mounting, weighs only 48 kilos.

Anodised Aluminium Frame and back plate
Absorber Surface of titanium oxide
Tempered 4mm solar glass
Low Heat Loss
Absorber Area 2.2 m2
Dimensions 2278 x 1075 x 110 mm

Total Surface Area 2.4m2

Technical Report on Saving Energy with Latent Energy Storage

According to the German Federal Environment Agency, 50% of all pollutants are generated by domestic and commercial boilers in the start and cut-off phases of their burners. In the main, these pollutants are unburned hydrocarbons that means fuel that is being wasted. The large producers of heating boilers also quote the number of burner starts in the average boiler as being up to 50,000 per year.

A report by the Technical University of Aachen says that only after 3-6 minutes firing does a burner reach what is called the stationary level. This is when combustion becomes effective and achieves maximum efficiency. This means that, based on 50,000 starts, in the course of a year, a boiler needs to be firing for 2500 hours in order to reach maximum efficiency. As the average service time of boiler is considerably less than that, the conclusion must be that a running time of 6 minutes is very rarely achieved, and even then only when in very cold weather conditions. Thus in most cases, few boilers ever reach the desired stationary level and a very high proportion of unburned fuels escape via the flue.

In addition to this, each boiler start up creates soot and just a 1mm layer considerably reduces heat transmission and increases flue gas temperature by about 500 C. By reducing the number of boiler starts therefore, the need for cleaning and service can also be reduced.

The answer to these problems is of course to decrease the number of boiler starts and increase burn time at the stationary level thereby increasing the efficiency of the boiler, reducing the amount of unburned hydrocarbon emissions, and reducing soot deposits.

This is what can be achieved with the introduction of latent heat storage system in the form of Power Tanks from First light Energy. By storing the energy produced by the boiler, burner starts can be reduced by over 90% thus virtually eliminating the amount of unburned hydrocarbons.

The operating efficiency of the boiler is increased accordingly, and fuel consumption and soot deposits dramatically reduced. As Power Tanks also serve to increase the effectiveness of solar heating, an installation of Power Tanks and Sun Stream solar heating panels is probably the most effective means to reduce energy consumption available on the market today.

(Source: TH Aachen, TFH Berlin)