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Renewable Energy for the Home

Solar water heater-- how to tell if it works?

16 years ago

We just purchased a home that has a disconnected solar panel on the roof. The pipes are there, and there are pipes where the hot water heater is inside leading TO the tank but not connected to it.

Tomorrow we are having the roof replaced on the house, which means the solar panel will have to be disassembled and taken down. If the roofers are to reconnect the panel it will cost around $500 dollars.

We'd love to use this system, which is an integral collector-storage system, but we don't even know if it works! The previous owners said that it did, but they disconnected it, which sounds fishy, don't you think? Is there a way that we can test the solar panel out before reconnecting it? What kind of failures may I find in the system?

Many thanks in advance for your help!

Jane

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