Resurrected Solar Hot Water System in Aurora, CO.

drainback/accumulator sdhw solar hot water st service

This 35+ year old system hadn't been running for years.  The new home owner is installing a solar electric system and wanted to know if the system should be saved or removed.  Our initial evaluation showed that the panels were good and the piping from the panels to the crawlspace also passed a pressure test.  The solar loop pump and solar controller definitely needed to be replaced.  The drainback tank, solar storage tank and the storage loop pump may need to be replaced.

We provided the homeowner with a 'step by step' quote.  This gave her a worst case idea of what to expect and that we would proceed step by step and only replace what was needed.

Worst case she was looking at over $6,000.

The first step was to replace the solar loop pump and the solar controller so that we could get the system running.  We let it run for about a week and returned to see how the system was doing.

On our return we found that the drainback tank indeed was leaking.  Luckily, the solar storage pump and the solar storage tank were both good.  At this time we also found that the isolation valves to the solar storage tank were not working and would need to be replaced.

Next we returned and replaced the drainback tank and isolation valves and got the whole system running again.