Apr 12, 2013 05:34 AM
33571 Views
I decided on V-Guard for two reasons. It looked better quality. Some other brands I saw on my friends places had developed cracks in the tank or its insulation material which allowed rain water to enter the insulation causing heat loss. V-Guard was a bit more expensive at that time compared to other brands. Another friend of mine at that time had used V-Guard for a few years (now 7-10years) without any problem at all.
Solar water heaters are the simplest technology saving huge electricity. There are no moving parts and as long as you don't break the glass tube there is nothing that can go wrong. I did occasional cleaning of the tubes especially in rainy days to capture more heat. But be gentle with the tube if you are cleaning it. We never had any problem with the heater in these 3 years. I believe any rubber gasket will deteriorate over years. I expect to replace it in a few years time. That is OK as long as they supply these consumables at a reasonable price when needed.
One tip I have is about the diameter of the hot water pipes running out of the heater. If the bathroom is far from heater, it is better to run smaller diameter pipes. This reduces the cold water coming out of the taps at the beginning. Besides, it saves money on pipes. This may not work for you if there are multiple bathroom to be connected from the same tap AND all of them will be used for shower at the same time. Again, the installation guys did not know this and they kept insisting on higher diameter.
Another thing is, if you have an old electric heater with small tank you can connect the input to electric water heater tank and use that monster for storing more hot water. Your 100LPD becomes 150LPD. A little low temperature though. It is better to keep more water at close to required temperature than less water at high temperature and mix it on demand. The reason is at high temperature, heat loss will be high.
Doing business with ethical company whose director used to pay the highest income tax in state a few years back was and is a feel good factor, an added bonus :-)
I did not give a rating to service and support since we never used it. I will give a five star after 2 more years. One complaint I have about all solar heater manufacturers is that they import, afaik, simple components like the Evacuated Glass Tubes, why don't they manufacture it locally? Has it changed recently?
