New solar-powered boiler from Germany
From pv magazine Germany
Timo Leukefeld GmbH has started selling a new hot water tank and heater in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
The boiler relies on two AC heating rods and uses excess solar power from rooftop PV systems to generate domestic hot water. It is available in capacities of 125 liters, 160 liters, and 200 liters,
“With our boiler, homeowners can raise the overall self-sufficiency in terms of heating, water heating and electricity by five to ten percent, which is a considerable increase in apartment buildings,” said the company’s owner, Timo Leukefeld. “We achieve a degree of self-sufficiency of around 70% a year in domestic hot water production.”
Leukefeld said the boilers can be used in combination with PV systems. Homeowners can operate the first heating element with 2kW of power and the desired temperature can be set on thermostats. The second heating rod, which also has an output of 2kW, is operated via a PV system and is controlled by a timer.
The timer is set so that from March to September, excess solar power is used to heat water up to 70 C between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. The other heating element only switches on when the temperature in the boiler falls below 50 C. This allows homeowners to replace expensive grid power with excess solar power.
The boilers are made of sheet steel and are coated with enamel on the inside. Depending on the space that is available, they could be installed in bathrooms.
“Due to the short pipework and small amounts of water, water heating is also much more hygienic,” said Leukefeld.
The self-sufficient boilers are also designed to reduce long-term ancillary costs as much as possible.
“The challenge is to achieve a real solar coverage of more than 50% for heating, hot water and household electricity,” said Leukefeld. “A hot water boiler that is able to primarily use excess solar power to heat shower and drinking water can make a significant contribution to energy independence.”
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At 70⁰ a lot of scale accumulates on the heating element. Efficiency is reduced very quickly.
This is not a new idea
People have been doing by rewiring the off peak hot water unit and going off the off peak tariff in Australia
We had the big blue twin element off peak water systems on the market for 40 yrs
Where does the “decentralised” come into play with this water heating solution?
As its only a brief summary article, Is it just able to heat water only? Or does it heat central heating water as well? If only hot water, in the UK there have been devices for many years that divert solar generation to a cylinder immersion, thus heating water, without need for a special dedicated boiler.
Sounds great . Perhaps the boiler could be sold accompanied with a suitable solar unit all for one price .
Good initiative from germany.i really love it
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How well would this boiler work for us here in New Zealand.? We are off the grid with a gas califont. Also how much does a unit cost to have it sent to New Zealand? Thank you.