How Does Rheem Solar Water Heater Works

How Does Rheem Solar Water Heater Works

Sun’s energy is freely available for everyone and the most common use of the solar energy is in solar panels and solar water heaters. The solar water heaters are used to generate hot water using the sun’s energy. These heaters can be easily installed and used in both residential and commercial buildings.
To understand the working of the solar water heaters we must first understand the construction or the parts of the same for the better understanding of its functioning

Parts of solar water heater

Rheem solar water heater comprises of two parts viz., solar collector (which absorbs sun radiations & transfer the heat to water) and a storage tank, which stores the water heated by the solar collector. All the solar water heaters are backed by the backup heaters to supply hot water when sun’s radiation is no enough. This is also the main component of the solar water heater.

Types of Solar water heaters:

Usually, there are two types of solar water heaters available in the market. One is Flat plate collectors and the other is the Evacuated tube collectors. As we are discussing Rheem solar water heaters, we will consider the flat plate collectors in this post

Flat Plate collectors

Flat Plate Collector also referred as FPC, which is usually a flat insulated box covered with the glass and a bunch of tubes, usually of copper. This tube is covered & welded to the wide fins, usually of Aluminium painted with high absorption coatings such as TINOX. These are required to heat the water by harnessing the solar energy.

The Working

The collectors or the insulated box of glass and tubes are placed on the rooftop facing south in the northern hemisphere and north in the southern hemisphere. The glass and the aluminum's fins gather the sun’s radiation and convert it into heat which is transferred into the water that flows in the copper tubes placed in the collector.
The heated water is transferred to the storage tank either through the pumps, which is controlled by the solar controller or if the tank is placed on the top of the collectors then through thermosiphon (hot is lighter thus rises, cold is denser, heavier thus settles down).

In case of non-sunny days, fluctuation in hot water demand or when the sun’s radiation is not available for the longer duration and the available water cannot be heated up to the desired temperature, Rheem solar water heater is backed up by auxiliary heater at the outlet end of the collector, that heats the water to the desired temperature before the water moves to the storage tanks. These backup heaters could either be of gas, electric, heat pump etc. depending upon the users’ choice and demand. It is always recommended to install a thermostatic mixture in the solar water heater so as to prevent scalding if the temperature of the water changes exceptionally.

The main difference and the edge that the Rheem solar water heater has above the conventional solar water heaters is that the backup heater location. In the conventional heaters, the backup heaters are placed at the starting end of the collector which heats the water before to reaches the collector for the sun to heat the same. Rheem solar water heaters have the backup heaters at the rear end which works only when the solar energy is not enough to heat the water up to desired degrees