Evac solar tubes!!

[duchesse]

Had our installation five years. Just noticed today that the thermostat is showing an error message "SYS", temp on roof appears to be 124C and in the tank 5C. It is sunny today but how can the tubes be at 124 when it's about -5 outside? Any ideas?

What's the lowest temo they can withstand? Is it possible the fluid in them, or in the supply pipes could have frozen?

I just spoke to a plumber who fits these things and he reckons (long distance) that there is a pipe frozen in the loft between the mains and where it goes into the collection tank. Unfortunately he can't come out until Tuesday at the earliest and we have very little hot water (one bathroom is still on an immersion tank, but there will have to be rationing...). Hope the weather changes, but the forecast is for it to stay below freezing for the next few days at least...

yes - my guess is that the circulation has failed & given the temp frozen pipes have got to be suspect. Could be the pump isn't working or something else though. Can't you use the solar heated water at all even though it's not being solar heated? I mean doesn't something else 'top up' the solar heat for that water?

Snorkle, we have a combi boiler. The solar system preheats the water to run through it. So if there's a pipe frozen in the attic, the whole hot water system will stop because they're all linked together. Which explains why the cold water and the heating system are mercifully unaffected. I just hope that the freeze isn't a burst cos that could get messy.. The plumber thought from whatever garbled info he got from me that there must be a frozen pipe between the mains that runs to the attic and and accumulator vessel for the solar heat.

So to answer your question, (now that I've read it again!) no, we can't use the hot water until that pipe unfreezes (which may not be any time soon at this rate...) Temp on the roof at the tubes had gone down to 91C by mid afternoon. Gutted to be wasting all that good heat...

Ah, I see. Just remember most of us waste all the sun's heat that lands on our roof all the time (must investigate if I can afford a solar thermal system this year). I guess you'll all need to toughen up and be hardy types for a few days (did you see the nutters swimming in the serpentine on the bbc site this morning?).