Circulation Systems

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The water in a solar water heating system needs to be circulated for the system to work. Several methods are used to circulate the water within the system including pumps and the thermo-siphon principle.

Pumped / Active

Active solar water heating systems use a pump to circulate the water within the solar heating system.

One advantage of using a pumped system is that you can easily hide your geyser inside the roof to help improve aesthetics.

The pumps typically used in solar water heating systems are very quiet, draw very little electricity (less than 150 Watts) and are either driven by a solar controller or by a Solar PV panel.

Thermo-siphon

Thermo-siphon systems make use of the fact that hot water rises and cold water sinks. This is a great solution to circulating water within a solar water heating system where the storage tank (geyser) can be installed higher than the solar collector. The solar collector and tank typically need to be close to one another for the process to work efficiently.