How the Energie system works
The sun does not always shine. Winter days have an average of seven hours of light and on average, only a few hours of sun. This lack of sunlight limits the effectiveness of traditional solar panels. ‘Energie’ thermodynamic solar panels overcome this constraint. The ‘Energie’ system heats all the water for your family or commercial business with great efficiency and major energy savings – even on rainy days and at night!
It's a solar system, so how does it work at night?
It works on the thermodynamic principles, namely evaporation, condensation and compression. All these processes generate heat. All you need is the lightweight, aluminium solar panel measuring 2000mm x 800mm (weighing just 8kg) and the hot water cylinder, with in-built compressor and heat exchanger.
The ‘Energie’ thermodynamic solar system will provide all your hot water
The system works by using a refrigerant in the panel instead of water. The refrigerant liquid is at approximately -28 degrees celsius. The air around the panel warms the liquid and it evaporates to form a hot gas. A small compressor attached to the cylinder compresses the gas, giving off even more heat. The very hot gas then travels around a spiral heat exchanger in the cylinder and gives up it's heat to the water in the cylinder, which surrounds the heat exchanger. As the gas cools, it condenses, giving off more heat. It then returns to a liquid, goes back to the panel and the process is repeated.
It is a very simple system, with few moving parts, as it works by differential temperature - the difference in temperature of the air around the panel and the very cold liquid inside the panel. Unless the outside temperature drops below -10 degrees celsius, the ‘Energie’ solar hot water system works all the time, even at night!