PLS Help: Bosch 125V Solar Kit Option

[shaniac]

I had a long conversation today with Bosch who makes the current aquastar. I have an OLDER 125VP (propane version of the 125V) It works great, but I wanted to hook it up to my solar hot water (SHW) setup. What i would like to know is if anyone on the board has installed the upgrade kit inside their 125V and has any advice for me, or if anyone out there already has a 125V (S model) that is already set up for solar hot water. Is it working for you? Is it quirky?

Please note: these are the older dinosaurs, not the 125B models that are more popular.

I also found an old school tech at Bosch that said each 125V could do SHW preheated water or regular water, the difference is the way they were set up. When you bought the solar kit, you were simply replacing the parts that needed to be adjusted, but that any 125V could do the job.

Has anyone out there converted theirs? Is it worth the pain or is the conversion so complicated it is safer to just throw down your $125 and bolt in the new parts?

As always, thanks in advance for all you advice and experience.

- Shaniac

[scottsAI]

Shaniac,

125B, 6 years old, looks like new.

Solar version was $100 more, so skipped. Still do not have solar.

Question, the conversion parts are the same part adjusted differently?

Any instruction how to adjust the parts?

Wondered what would be different, the burner is supposed to control output temp, what does it mater the incoming water temp?? Why does it need to be adjusted?

Have fun,

Scott.

[shaniac]

Hey Scott, the 125B is the newer model. A conversion is not available as far as I know. the 125V that I was talking about is the predecessor to the B series.

On yours, if you put preheated water in to the unit (say 120 Deg) it will simply heat that up as much as it would the 40 Deg water going in normally. the end result will be that the end user will keep turning down the heat (on the sink) until the flow is so low that the 125B will shut off.

On a solar version, the unit senses the hot water coming in, and heats it to the temp desired, or if hot enough already, it shuts off the burner.

If you don't have SHW already, I would recommend it. Free hot water is heavenly!

As for how to tweak the 125V to make it Solar compatible, i do have some specs but it is more than i could write up here. If someone is really interested, they can Pmail me and i can send them what Bosch sent me. i spoke with a tech there that used to do the work on those units back in the day. It does not sound too easy, thus why I was asking the crowd what they thought, or if anyone had done it before.

Thanks Scott!

[thirteen]

I just installed a Bosh on demand water heater but I kept the old water heater and took the insulation off of it. It sits beside my cook stove chiminey in it's own small room on the second floor and that helps preheat the water. My spring water tempature is 42-46 and this lets me have 40 gallons of warmer water that does not need to be heated as much. I'm not sure how well it works yet but I used it for two days and will be back there next spring. It was a gas heater to me it was worth a try. Just an idea that might give you other ideas.