July 13th, 2010 | 
Author: The owner, Garret, of Suncity Solar Energy is installing a water tank and hooking it up to the other tank. He explains the circulation of the water in the process of heating and storage.
Posted in solar | 
Tags: hot water tanks, Oklahoma City, solar hot water systems, Solar panels, thermal panels.
170* F is quite high for a solar hot water tank. How often does it get this hot?
How many collectors do you have?
how much water do you collect?
Most solar storage tanks do not have heating elements, the sun heats it. Then the solar storage is hooked to the homes existing tank making it a back-up heat source.
When used, the hotter solar heated water keeps the tanks heater from turning on. You save money!
Some manufactures make a special tank with heating elements, but It does not have to be a special “solar tank”. You can just connect the solar heating equipment to the existing water heater, but then you have no auxiliary storage
The controller’s sensor for the solar storage should be near the bottom of the tank. With a 130F temp setting at the bottom of the tank the water at the top will be hotter but temp. will drop as the hottest water is drawn off the top of the tank and replaced with cold water at the bottom of the tank.
If you have your solar storage tank settings at 160F+ then you you have to put a mixing valve setting it to 110F, You are wasting energy! If your system is wired to house electric to run the pumps and controls, then you are paying to heat water past the point necessary. A more proper setting of your solar storage temp. is about 130F. !80F degree water will cool at a faster rate than 130F degree water, even in an Insulated tank. Lowering your storage temp. for more efficiency. Save Money !
normally the solar tank also has a heating element in it as a back up. The second tank is not necessary. That second tank is not able to keep the water hot if it is unused without using the gas burner. maybe a recirculation pump on the solar tank would be good as well. hope it all works out for you, good to see more people trying alternatives.
He hasn’t got a clue himself. He is totally confused, making this a waste of time!
very cool