ALPHA-OMEGA SOLAR TUBE COLLECTORS ALPHA OMEGA ECOLOGICAL SOLUTIONS Athens Office: 8, R. Garibaldi & Sofroniskou str. Tel. +30.210.9228225 Email: info@alpha-omega.com.gr Direct Phones: +30.697.42 28 012 & +30.698.26 60 768 Page 1 of 25
THE COLLECTOR The collector is composed of vacuum tubes, manifold case, U pipes, tailstocks and frame. However, collector could not work independently, but should be operated together with other professional water heating system. Heat is transmitted to heat storage water tank from collector to produce hot water. The collector could be installed on roof with single plate or multiplate connected to form collector array. Page 2 of 25
FEATURES 1) Operation under pressure: No restriction on installation position. Hot water is supplied under pressure to ensure large flow and comfortable bathing. 2) Reliable system: No water leaking, scale formation in the vacuum tube. Tube explosion is avoided. The freeze-proof capacity is strong to ensure reliable operation. 3) Perfect combination with building: Optimized and elegant appearance design realizes integral combination with building in real meaning. WORKING PRINCIPLE Working principle: Vacuum tubes absorb and convert the sunlight into heat energy which will be transferred to U pipe by fins. Then, it heats the medium in the U pipe. By the circulation of the medium between U pipe and water tank, the cold water is heated. Page 3 of 25
TECHNICAL PARAMETER This product complies with GB/T17581-2007 standard. 1. PARAMETERS OF THE VACUUM TUBE 2. COLLECTOR PARAMETER Page 4 of 25
PRECAUTIONS All the installations should be carried out by qualified professional personnel, following requirements should be noticed: 1. Comply with laws and regulations stipulated by local government; 2. Roof structure, bearing capacity and water-proof measures of roof should be researched before installation; 3. Meet the requirements of the safety regulation of roof construction; 4. Be aware of safety operation of devices; 5. Installation manual of collector should be read carefully beforehand; 6. Vacuum tube under blazing sun without covering may get very high temperature over 200 c, so be careful of scalding; 7. During roof installation, take care to prevent stuff dropping from roof. 8. Wind load should be considered at collector installation. Architecture fixing point of wind-proof should refer to regulation of similar installation. 9. Tilt angle of collector should be larger than 50 to prevent gliding of snow at regions with heavy snowfall. 10. Transportation of collector should refer to the drawing below. Don t lift collector connector of collector or hit the thread to prevent deformation or damage by mechanical force, which will be unable to connect; don t hit U pipe and fin to avoid deformation, which will result in damage or failing to connect vacuum tube. Page 5 of 25
11. Qualified lightning proof expert should be consulted on lightning rod installation and lightning proof lead should be grounded outside house when installing the collectors. ASSEMBLY AND INSTALLATION OF THE COLLECTOR Collector assembly Step 1: Install seal ring at spout (factory assembly) Step 2: Install fin (factory assembly) Install fin: A. U pipe should be checked for deformation and before installation corrected to make sure the two sides of one U copper pipe are parallel; B. Install U pipe fin of one side first, fix the copper pipe into fin groove; then install the fin on another side according to the abovementioned method; C. Adjust to tightly buckle up two fins, ensure no deformation, and avoid U pipe protruding out of fin groove. Page 6 of 25
Step 3: Install wind ring (factory assembly) Install wind ring: Insert wind ring from the bottom of U pipe and push to the middle of buckling part of collector housing. Embed wind ring bulge into vacuum tube hole of collector, adjust the ring to tightly buckle up the manifold case. Step 4: Install vacuum tube Note: Cut the nylon strap fastening U pipe fins before installation. Installation steps: Wet the opening of vacuum tube or wind ring first. Then one person nip the fin tightly to combine them, another person insert the vacuum tube from the bottom of U pipe with fins on it, keep the concentricity of vacuum tube and U pipe. If insert with difficulty, you can nip fins more tightly and turn the vacuum tube. Or you can lubricate with graphite or other lubricant, then insert vacuum tube until uncoated part of the tube entering into wind ring completely. Page 7 of 25
Safety instruction: (1) Vacuum tube should not be exposed to blazing sun for a long time, otherwise people would get burned by the hot inner tube and the hot fin (the fin would become hot very soon once it touch the hot inner tube); (2) Avoid scuffing by wearing gloves during installation. Step 5: Install tailstock Installation steps: Insert the tailstock on the tail of vacuum tube. Lift the tube tail lightly (not more than 50mm), put the tailstock on the bracket, push down the tailstock along the arrow direction and fix it as the figure indicated. Note: If the bracket could not be aligned, turn the vacuum tube more into the manifold case. Otherwise, the deformation of hook under protection support may result in hook broken. Page 8 of 25
Step 6: Assembly finished, the integral schematic drawing is as following: Installation of the collector Installation of collector has two cases: on pitched roof and flat roof. Choose position to install before installation, then check and measure structure of roof on which collector will be installed. Make sure the installation area is enough, check the water proof structure and bearing condition of roof, and make fixture structure. Ensure the capacity to fight against wind load and snow load after installation. Besides, support should be firmly fixed to prevent movement by wind. Note: In order to get sufficient sun light, the direction of collector should be in accordance with local sun radiation. No barrier should stand in front of collector. Page 9 of 25
Size: Page 10 of 25
Page 11 of 25
Page 12 of 25
Page 13 of 25
Size of flat roof of collector Schematic drawing of flat roof of collector Page 14 of 25
Page 15 of 25
Page 16 of 25
Page 17 of 25
Page 18 of 25
COLLECTOR CONNECTION Both collector inlet and outlet is 15 copper pipe, and low temperature soldering is recommended connection. Note: 1) Copper pipe should be used to connect pipeline, and the material of the pipe can't be plastic. Because the temperature and pressure withstanding capacity of plastic piping will decline under high temperature, and it may result in damage of pipe; 2) During welding, end cover of collector should be protected against burning. Collector array arrangement is indicated as below Page 19 of 25
As showed in the above drawing, the longitudinal separation of the solar collectors is specified as following: When mounting several collectors, the maximum serial connection quantity of the collector should not exceed the limit indicated in the table below. The flow of branch modules in parallel connection should be the same. Therefore, equal distance of pipeline arrangement should be considered most in the piping connection of collector. The number of collectors that domestic water heating systems use is not more than four pieces, the pipe diameter should not be less than 13mm. If the gross aperture area is larger than 20m2 (approximately 10 piece of collectors)it is suggested that the diameter of inlet and outlet pipe should not be less than 20mm. Maximum connection pieces Sensor installation Temperature sensor is installed in the sensor tube at collector outlet as indicated below. Please open the end cover of the collector, then get temperature sensor through the middle hole of end cover and put it into sensor tube. Notice 1) The diameter (d) of the temperature sensor should be not more than 6mm, otherwise you are unable to install it. Page 20 of 25
2) Probe of senor should be placed in the sensor tube completely until it can not go in further; 3) Cables of the sensor should be fixed on piping insulation outside. Cable aging may occur if fixed sticking to pipe. Maintenance guidance Pipeline insulation The temperature that the insulation material for pipeline should withstand is not lower than 100. Otherwise, the high temperature of pipeline will result in damage or melting of insulation material, which will lose insulation effect. Thermal insulation shall be adopted for thermal circulation pipeline according to design. Tightness testing should be carried out before construction. All the types and thickness of insulation material should comply with the design Page 21 of 25
requirements and construction method should accord with material specification. 1. Rubber-plastic pipes are recommended as thermal insulation material for split system. Thermal insulation shall be adopted for thermal circulation pipeline, but maybe unnecessary for water supply pipeline if required by the customer. 2. Insulation thickness of thermal circulation pipeline should be not less than 20mm outside and 10mm inside, attic and basement should be not less than 20mm. 3. The thermal circulation pipeline should be wrapped with aluminium foil to protect against ultraviolet radiation. Parts list of U pipe collector Part list of pitched roof Part list of flat roof Page 22 of 25
Typical solar water heating system Page 23 of 25
Generally, solar water heating system includes collectors, storage tank, pipes and etc. There are both single circulation system and double circulation system. Page 24 of 25
Double Circulation System Page 25 of 25