What to look for in a good Heat Transfer Fluid - The 'Lifeblood' of your Solar Thermal System

28th April 2014

$\"John$

With a background in both manufacturing and installations; John Westerman knows what to look for in a good Heat Transfer Fluid.

John’s experience in the world of Solar Thermal means that he understands, first hand, some of the difficulties experienced in system functionality and offers advice on how to prolong the life of systems and preserve return on investment using in his view, some of the best solutions on the market today.

Often treated as a commodity, a heat transfer fluid is the effective means of transferring the radiant energy generated by the sun, charging the solar collector area and transferring the heat to useable stored hot water within the cylinder for use in Domestic and Commercial installations reducing the volume of carbon consumption of fossil fuels.

$\"What$

Today most systems are specified with traditional mono-propyleneglycol (MPG) which can suffer from premature ageing mainly due to periods of stagnation and inactivity. Once the fluid goes above 150⁰C, degradation starts and can become irreversible.

$\"Premature$

The typical systems most at risk are those with oversized collectors, high performance evacuated tubes and designs subject to periods of overheating, stagnation or inactivity, when buildings are unoccupied.

Examples of solar installations in a whole range of properties are, for example:

Schools and universities, Barracks, Apartment blocks;
Domestic and Commercial unoccupied properties or between tenant properties;
Commercial and community distribution systems;
Second homes, holiday lets and camp sites.

If left untreated, the onset of glycol degradation can accelerate and incur unforeseen costs due to unnecessary service and maintenance requirements, especially where lower standards of MPG are in use. System designs have to improve over the coming years addressing some of the common issues we still see today - allowing for such things as larger cylinders and the installation of drain back and/or utilising the excess generated heat by dumping into alternative uses.

Climalife believe that they offer some of the best Solar HTF solutions in the market.

Climalife Solutions

$\"Climalife$

View our Solufluid -25°C Product Information Sheet

View our Greenway Brochure

View our SolRnett Product Information Sheet

Climalife also offer traditional Heat Transfer Fluids and maintenance solutions.

Talk to Climalife about your Solar Thermal system and we will tailor a solution to meet your needs.

Tel: 0117 980 2520 Email: climalife.uk@climalife.dehon.com

What to look for in a good Heat Transfer Fluid - The 'Lifeblood' of your Solar Thermal System

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