I’m finally selling a home made solar thermal panel I built a few years ago.
It’s based on the commercial “Solar Twin” design. Featuring an aluminium frame, closed cell foam insulation, black aluminium thermo collection panel with medical grade silicone tubing attached.
The system was designed as a direct water heating type, with the water in the silicone tubing coming /going directly to/from the hot water tank, so no messing about with gycol/anti-freeze, expansion tanks etc. The silicone tubing allows the water in the panel to freeze during the winter (the tubing just expands slightly rather than splits), during the day the ice melts and the system restarts.
The sale is only for the panel, two brackets and four mounting bolts. You will need some sort of controller to monitor the temperature of the panel & water tank then drive a small pump to circulate the water. I built my own with an Arduino, some DS18B20’s and a Charles Austin 12V pump, but these have been reused since so are no longer available.
The panel is 8ft x 4ft so posting it will be tricky, probably best if you come over and collect it.
The panel is sold as-is. No guarantees & no come-back if you fall off your roof!
I still have receipts & spreadsheet of BOM & costs. From memory around £500 (though that may have included the Arduino/pump/plumbing) by the time it was on the roof. Sensible offers please?
If you’re really interested, I have a slide deck of the whole build process somewhere too.