FOREWORD

FOREWORD

There are some important things going on in the daily plumbing market. A bit worrying so to say. Since last year July (2009) the regulations have changed, if you change over your gas hot water system it has to be replaced with a 5-star unit, and for electric you'll have to change to solar, gas or a system that's called a heat pump. Recently we have carried out a lot of solar installations and I'm worried about the lifespan of these systems. Just to tell you this, I used to be a Lloyds registered weld inspector and I would like to share some information. Any metal that undergoes a temperature change will expand when it get warmer and contracts when it gets colder. You might have heard from your plumber to keep the setting on your hot water system to a medium setting in order to make it last longer, so basically what's happening is by moderating the temperature of the water we are looking after our cylinder. Back to the solar system it is an uncontrolled heat and the temperature can get up to 100°C on extreme hot weather days. The large scale of temperature change possibly 80°C between day and night on the panels causes a big strain on the system, this heat  during the daytime is also transferred to the cylinder. When hot water is being used during the evening it will be replaced by cold water and it causes a lot of stress on the cylinder as well. When this continuous expansion and contraction is taking place you will get the metal into a condition what we call metal fatigue and the cylinder will break. It doesn't matter if it is stainless steel or mild steel it will happen. You probably remember breaking a wire with your bare hands by repeatedly bending it. Another draw back is the fact that if a family of five all have a shower at night, you won't have hot water in the morning, because the idea of having solar is to keep the power ('J' tariff) off  during the warmer part of the year. If you did keep the power on you would be defeating the object because your 'J' tariff will come on at night so it's pointless having the sun heating up the system during daylight because the water has already been heated by the back up element.  Another draw back is that the uncontrolled heat will get the hot expansion valve to discharge water during the hotter part of the day and this might be very frustrating if your a water concious person. Also be aware that closed coupled systems on corrugated iron roofs are a big no-no unless you have a fitness certificate from a building inspector. However we have seen several sagged roofs when we changed anodes on these systems ( see anode section), over the period of time even on tiled roofs, by the time problems start to show your warranty period has long expired. Sometimes I think roofs are made for roof tiles to direct the rain water into the gutter and away from the house, and nothing else.

I needed to tell you this because the investment of $5000+ might not be the investment you where looking for. 

Last year alone we have installed over 100 heat pumps which will heat the system to a steady 60°C. The heat pump is in effect a refrigerated air conditioner where we use the heat indirectly to heat the systems hot water. Many people have queries about the noise level of heat pumps but not once have we had a complaint from any of our customers about the noise level. The noise level of a heatpump is about 15 decibels below the noise level of an air conditioner.  If air conditioners run during warm nights you don't hear people complain either.

Anyway that's off my chest and I hope you'll find this usefull information. If you need any more information or have any questions just drop us a line and we are more than willing to answer your query,

Kind regards, Frans sterk, Director GASWATCH AUSTRALIA Pty Ltd.