water heater question.

[rnln]

My house has 2 water heaters. One for gas and one for the solar. Looking at the piping, I think the water is comming to the solar heater first, then through the gas heater to inside the house. Both are turned off now.
The solar also supplies water heat for the swimming pool, which is removed now. They cut off the pipes right at the pool. I will plugged the pipes up soon before I turn the water heaters on.
I am not sure if I should mess with the heaters to turn them on or do I need the pro? Anyone know who should I call? The solar company, or the gas company, or both?
Thanks.

[dad911]

New house to you, or was it working before?

If the hot water flows ok, and is running through the gas HW heater, it should be ok to fire the HW heater.

Is there a heat exchanger at the pool? I find it weird to mix the pool & house systems.

If this is a new house to you, I would probably bypass the solar, get the gas fired working, then have the solar guys out to see if it is worth hooking up again.

[Scott R]

Was in the same boat a few years back, sans the pool though. We went with just the gas water hater in the end and bypassed the solar completely. The cost to repair the older solar system was more than I would spend in decades of using the gas water heater.

We did finally get a guy to come and get the solar hot water working in exchange from some work I did on his truck. It's works ok, but you still need the gas water heater to supplement it (and this is a HUGE solar setup)

I may turn the whole thing off again. The odd "dishwasher" like noise it makes reverberates through some of my walls and is getting annoying.

The bypass I did ran the water supply to a "T" with two valves on each side of the "T" one to isolate the gas heater and one to isolate the solar supply. Just some copper pipe and two ball valves.

[Zeke]

Sounds like the solar was a preheat. It should have a bypass and should never have shared any water with the pool. Get the gas going first and see what happens, WH's off for awhile tend to leak. Keep an eye on it.

[rnln]

Yes, there is the heat exchanger at the pool, which they pulled it away. I gave it. Looking on the roof, I see 2 types of panels. I guess their are 2 separate systems for pool and house.
This is a new (old) house for me. I met the previous tenant a while back. He said the solar system was still working. He said that he turned the gas heater to the lowest position and the gas bill was very little.

More reading, I now think there are 2 separate systems for house and pool. Look like the solar water heater for the house is supplying hot water to the gas water heater. For the pool, water from the roof panels go straight to the heater exchanger next to the pool. If they just cut the pipes and remove everything right at the pool, I will need to plug those pipes, but should there be a shut off valves or some type of control before the hot water hit the pool/exchanger?

Thanks guys.

[Por_sha911]

Ah yes, the solar power and water heater was the environmental extremists big deal before they found ethanol and electric cars. Like the later two, the govt spent a ton of money on research and incentives. It sold well for a while (people wanted bragging rights at the next cocktail party) but I have yet to find where it worked to any measurable degree. In most cases there isn't enough daylight to make it viable and it would take 20 years to pay back the initial cost. I went looking at those high efficiency water heaters not too long ago. Nothing more than a heat pump on a water heater. It would take me 30 years to have it pay for the higher cost.

[rnln]

The more I get to know the solar water heater, the more I feel disappointed. The pool solar system is garbage now, according to the prof. He said I will be lucky if I can sell the panels. Still have to repaire the roof. Not a big of a deal. How about converting them to merge with hous'e water heater? No, diff type.

The disappointment is the house water solar system. I tested the solar by turnning the gas heater down to see how well the solar heater works. waiting for 2 days, nothing at all. Water at fauset is still cold. I even released hot water right at the tank's drain and release valve, it's a little warm, even hard to realize that it's warm. At first, I thought the system is bad, so I called the service guy. According to him, that's how it works in winter. Note, today is a sunny day.
My question is, why would people spend thousand of $ to get it only a little warm? I wouldn't.

[EarlyPorsche]

For electricity they work. For water not so much.

[sammyg2]

You should call them "hot water heaters".

it gives the net nannies sumthin to complain about