UK Economy 7 ,Solar, panel , Water Heater

[Billmccan]

Yes a friend is trying to get as much low cost energy as possible, he has a water tank with top and bottom elements which runs of Economy7 through a Horstmann E7BX timer so he can boost the top element during the day, this element is supplied by a 6mm double insulated cable from the supply isolator (via 16A CB) marked water heating only. He also has solar panels generating up to 6.1Kw, what he wants is for the bottom element on the emersion heater to make use of the free energy from the solar panels and run it during the day . My Idea would be to fit a change over switch ,bring two supplies into it one from the off peak DB and one from the daytime supply ,with the outgoing from the changeover switch going to the timer (TIMED) and bottom element, so this would mean he makes use of the solar power during the day and the off peak at night. What are your thoughts, has anyone else had this problem?

 

[snowhead]

You need one of the Solar immersion heater controllers, iBoost or similar, otherwise the heater could draw peak rate /daytime non solar power when there's no sun.

 

[Billmccan]

You need one of the Solar immersion heater controllers, iBoost or similar, otherwise the heater could draw peak rate /daytime non solar power when there's no sun.

TY for that,I'm not familiar with Solar power but I think I know what you mean you can correct me if I'm wrong. If the power being produced by the solar energy is not enough he would be using peak rate energy. I did see IBoost mentioned in another post, At the moment his system is producing more than he needs but as the weather get worse and the days shorten he may not be producing enough.I think I might have to do a bit of research on these so I maybe back on the forums to ask more questions, thanks again

 

[Nige61]

You need one of the Solar immersion heater controllers, iBoost or similar, otherwise the heater could draw peak rate /daytime non solar power when there's no sun.

I have a Solic feed to my immersion using solar to my top element. Bottom element is economy 7. I would like to switch between the two feeds but both to the bottom element. This would mean that the main feed would be solar but switch to economy 7 when there is no solar. Would I use an automatic transfer switch to do that?