solar hot water for washing

[whalechris]

Hi all

I've got a couple of old solar panels I recued from going to the dump and a water tank from a boat, which has a heat exchanger coil and an immersion heater in it. I plan to rig this up for the small hotel I run. I can't break into the main hotel system at the moment but can get the tank output from the tank to the laundry, to run that on solar hot water, which is a start! My question for all your learned minds is this. I'm used to washing machines in the UK with hot and cold water feeds but where I am in Portugal, the machines only have one feed, from the cold. So I thought just stick the solar hot water in the machine and the built in thermostat will just turn the heating element on for a shorter time, as feed water will be preheated. But then I realised if I get hot, hot water this might be too hot for particular clothes being washed. So my solution is to put a mixer that came with the tank on the "T" from the cold pipe and solar hot water pipe. Then when washing, just set machine wash temp on the mixer adjuster as well as the machine controller dial itself. Any comments on this? Seems so simple there must be something wrong. Appreciate any thoughts.

Thanks

Chris in the Azores 38N, 28W

[thefinis]

As far as the mixer goes I am not sure exactly what you have but if I understand right it should work. You could use almost any setup of valves with combined output into one pipe to control the temps  seen at the single inlet for the washer. It would have to be manually adjusted for different temp settings.

As you have most of the components it is worth the effort. Most of the time for solar water heating it is better to use direct solar heat than to make electricity and use it to heat the water. I would check and see if the panels will make the nessary voltage and amps needed to power the elements in the boat tank.

Finis

[stephent]

Might want to search a bit to see if the cold water inlet "valves" on the washing machine will take more then just barely luke warm tap water.

It takes a bit different valve to take the higher tempuratures.

The auto mixing water thing is to keep from just running hot water by itself out of a tap so you won't be burned just washing your hands. They usually have a narrow range to set temps with. More less about 110 deg F. max.

The cold water valve should take this ok as is.....probably/maybe (my normal disclaimer here--your milage may vary--and anything else exempting me from responsibility).

Warm water sure does clean better--no matter what the soap companies say.

[geoffd]

A friend of mine does this.  He has a hot solar feed and a cold water feed into a 2 way mixer tap.  When he wants 60 degree water hermoves the tap to a certain position, when he wants 40 degree he moves it so that there is a bit more cold water etc.

One of those thermostat mixers that you sometimes in showers that have a degree setting would be idea.

I intend to install Solar Hotwater sometime next year and will use that method for our Washing machine.

Cheers

Geoff

[whalechris]

Thanks a lot all. very suefull comments

Cheers

Chris

[NEO]

Hi Chris,

         Just set the blending valve for 60 degrees. The washing machine itself will blend it down further pior to cooler wash cycles begining. Bare in mind there is a heating element inside the washing machine to either heat water if you have a cold only supply or maintain the water tempreture through the wash cycle. Not sure how old the machine is but generaly the hotest wash aka HOT wash or Boil wash runs at 90 degrees. The element inside is used to raise the tempreture higher than the incoming tempreture to attain this value.

look for a PDF or manual for your machine it will have the technical ratings for incoming supply etc.