Hello I have been contacted by a company called SKS Thermodynamics and are calling their system revolutionary but is it revolutionary like the salesmen said??

Is it making solar thermal look like yesterday's technology? as this works all year round therefore you do not rely on secondary source.

Their website looks professional but not sure to go ahead with them http://www.sks-thermo.co.uk" >. Does anyone have any experience with this company?? I found a few positive reviews of them.

Also they said this system qualifies for the RHI but it does not come into action until summer 2012, but I do not know how much I would get.

The price they quoted was just above £6000 for this for my needs, how long will it take to get an ROI?

Sorry for multiple questions, me and my partner are in this dilema and I could not find any information to this as this is a new thing, and having free hot water heating really would help us out.

According to the Energy Saving Trust you can get RHPP for thermodynamic panels. However, it's not likely to be eligible for the RHI in the near future. This is a quote from DECC's press office:

· DECC is aware of this technology. These products work like a heat pump, using a solar panel to act the evaporator. Though the panel has solar keymark certification, these products are not a solar thermal technology and so are not eligible for the solar thermal tariff.

· We are gathering information on performance and on the establishment of standards for these products. At present there is no established methodology to test and demonstrate their performance and so they are not currently supported under the RHI.

· DECC is in discussions with the Microgeneration Certification Scheme who are working on developing standards. There are no immediate plans to bring in support under the RHI until demonstrable performance standards are established.

<blockquote><cite>Posted By: ted</cite>Thermodynamic solar panels are basically a heat pump. Not necessarily MCS certified as such - which they would need to be to get RHI. It's definitely not certain. RHI may start next year.</blockquote>

Look interesting though. They *seem* to have a lot of the advantages of AirSource (don't require sun, flexibility in fitting location) without most of the disadvantages (noise/complexity/moving parts exposed to elements). Does anyone have any more info on them?

It would apper there are two discussions going on covering the same ground. I'd suggest you shop around before you jump in and buy as i've see up to £1500 difference in price for the same system.

http://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=9763&page=1#Item_0

Might be worth reading this - "We briefly looked at this technology and decided that there was no evidence to support claims being made for it. Got this letter from MCS about half an hour ago: "17th October 2012".......

http://www.electriciansforums.co.uk/photovoltaic-solar-panels-green-energy-forum/65944-bubble-bursts-those-installing-solar-thermodynamics.html

Some test results - http://institute.ntb.ch/fileadmin/In...in_01-2012.pdf page 18, Energie Est, lda, Eco 250esm

Posted By: BeauThe table at the bottom said ASHP can,t heat water 100% of the time, I don,t believe this is true.

Can and does, except I suppose when very cold ours stops and defreezes itself for a minute every now and then before ploughing on.

Posted By: Beau"free constant hot water, whatever the weather day and night". How can a heat pump be free to run?

Can't see how either, unless with big PV + big battery for the dark times.

A pity that the technology may or may not be OK but the marketing materials I've seen seem a bit iffy to me.

@peterpanel22 How are you taking confidence from the fact that these type of panels have been in use in Ireland for 4 years?

I have been following this in Ireland over that period and despite seeing lots of people state that they have had them installed and are very happy with them I have only ever seen one individual post figures on the running cost.

In that instance they stated that for a family of 4 the total electrical consumption was 80.8kWhr for last July.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=80366705&postcount=14

I don't have a problem with the technology as long as you accept that it's a heat pump and not a solar panel (any possible issue of these being mis-sold as far as grants are concerned is another matter as far as I am concerned)

I have been looking for years for some independent test results for these panels and have never been able to find any.

Triassic's link above to a Swiss test is the closest I have seen so far and that gives a COP of 3.3 according to EN255-3

http://www.ntb.ch/fileadmin/Institute/IES/pdf/WPZ_Bulletin_01-2012.pdf (fixed link)

As I understand it EN255-3 is the standard for DHW heaters and is the COP to raise water from 15°C to 52°C with an ambient temp. of 7°C rather than to raise the water temp to 35°C which is how the COP of most ASHPs is stated so I think the COP of these so called thermodynamic solar panels possibly compare pretty well with other ASHPs.

But I'll say it again, I would just love if someone published independent tests by a credible organisation to show what the yearly running costs of this type of system really are.

I'm not sure that a new panel system like this (whatever the technology behind it) would be of interest to most people if it means you have to buy the whole kit including a new DHW cylinder. I would want to use my perfectly good cylinder and their heating system would need to be compatible with it!

Without the subsidy I'd expect the price to fall considerably, otherwise why would people buy such an expensively priced bit of kit.

Iooking at the individual parts that make up a system I'd pay no more than £2k tops.

Posted By: GaryBBest not to use at night (unless cloudy or wet) for the most efficient operation.

That's and interesting way to get the COP up, rather than have it temperature controlled like a standard ST system. Do they come with timers?

Beau

If you ever have a weekend to spare trying reading through this guy's blog:

http://chargingtheearth.blogspot.co.uk/

David

Posted By: SteamyTea

Posted By: GaryBBest not to use at night (unless cloudy or wet) for the most efficient operation.

That's and interesting way to get the COP up, rather than have it temperature controlled like a standard ST system. Do they come with timers?

Not sure, but if they don't they can be fed via a timeclock / programmer. If used with E7 or E10 a completely different economic scenario applies.

I'd think MCS would know better on that score than Jewsons, and given that they've suspended the certification of the products until further notice I can't see how anyone is going to register a system for RHI without the MCS cert.

Mmmm.... greenworks doesn't seem to have been updated since March 2012 and is still showing the old FIT rates, with no updated figures. So crikey! I can get 38p with their pv panels - amazing.

Peterpanel,

Can you let us know how you got on with the thermodynamic panels if you did go ahead with the installation? I was at the build show and was interested in them.
Many thanks.
Cheers!!

I see that installer sells infrared heaters and voltage optimisers, I shall say no more.