A month of sunshine?

We've had the solar thermal system running for a complete month now so it's a good time to see how it's been performing. The TD3 controller that Navitron supplied with it stores all sorts of useful data so assessing how it's doing is a simple task.

August, as is so often the case, proved to be a month with plenty of cloud and several dull wet days when there was little if any heat gained from the system. We had to use the electric immersion heater to boost the water temperature on a few occasions as a result. Even so the system generated 273 kwh of hot water during the month, saving us approximately £10. Not a lot when you consider the cost of the system but not bad for a very grey month. It'll be interesting to see how September fares, as we're only two days in and it's already generated more than 10% of what we saw in August thanks to clear blue skies.

And we're not letting the plentiful hot water go to waste either, as we spend this week laying 80 square metres of paving slabs to turn the muddy area at the back of the kitchen/diner into the courtyard, so hot showers are proving a good way to soothe aching muscles!