About Our Solar Thermal Components
Thermomax is proud to offer a complete line of products to suit your solar heating needs. We stand behind our quality. Systems installed since the early 1980’s are still performing efficiently and are saving their owners a substantial percentage of their heating bills. Ask us about custom designs for integrating solar domestic hot water with wood stoves, hot tubs, pools, radiant heating, and more.
Solar Collectors
The Thermomax Solar Collector ‘unit’ consists of a manifold and tubes. The manifold is the largest component of the collector unit, and is the structure in which the tubes are individually clamped. Manifolds come in two sizes, a 20 tube or a 30 tube. For larger solar heating demand, the manifolds are connected in series to fulfill your heating needs.
A Thermomax solar heating system is easy to install and a complete domestic hot water installation can be completed within a day or two. Installation is straightforward for both new buildings and retrofits. In fact, the collector is so light and modular that it can be installed by just one person.
Thermomax offers several Roof Mounting Kits to allow optimal angle positioning of the collector suitable for your situation. The collectors can also be installed on the ground.
Collector Efficiency
Collector efficiency remains high in diffused light (cloudy and semi-clear conditions). On an annual over 70% of the available energy from the sky is converted into heat regardless of the intensity of light. This collector can add heat to your hot water tank even on a cold and windy day!
Vacuum Tubes
Thermomax tubes pull the best vacuum in the industry (meaning the space within the glass tube contains no air). The better the vacuum within the tube, the fewer molecules there are providing heat losses. The vacuum also safeguards the collector against the effects of humidity and condensation. The lower the heat losses of the tube, the higher the efficiency and the better the collector can add heat to a hot system. Thermomax collectors can add heat to a system already at 60-80 degrees C (140-176 F), making them also applicable for space heating applications.
Tubes Versus Flat Plates
Independent tests have shown that the energy output of a Thermomax collector is two to three times that of an equal size “flat-plate” panel on an annual basis. Flat plates are well known for a large heat losses at higher temperatures. Flat plate collectors do not work well in minus temperatures such as -20 degrees where as Thermomax tubes will work well in this temperature.
Domestic Hot Water Tanks
We offer two lines of solar hot water tanks from 50-120 Gallon: glass lined (like our domestic electric tank), and full stainless steel. We have a wide range of tanks to choose from, ranging from single coil basic tanks to full multiple coil tanks that allow your to live off the grid and heat both your home and your water. We stand behind our quality.
Retrofit Heat Exchangers
Our Wand heat exchanger can be fitted into any new or existing hot water tank. This opens up solar hot water to many homes where it might be impractical to change out the existing tank.
The Standard 1.2m (48 inch) long Wand has about 2 square feet of heat transfer area inside the hot water tank. The wand assembly is inserted in the hot water tank by being screwed into the hot water outlet port.