The British Standards Institute has published a draft standard for domestic solar hot water systems. It appears to assume a pressurised system with heat exchanger inside a domestic hot water tank & to exclude all other approaches. This is a strange approach given the immaturity of the market in the UK & the benefits of alternative approaches. For example, it would seem to exclude drainback systems where a thermal store also acts as the drainback reservoir.

Hopefully this draft standard will encourage some informed debate & be re-written in a way that encourages innovation in both component & system design. If it goes ahead unchallenged, it will probably have a negative effect on the development of efficient, low cost, integrated systems for new build or retrofit.

If you have any views then you might like to comment on the current draft:

http://drafts.bsigroup.com/

Search for BS5918 & you should find "Draft BS 5918 Solar heating systems for domestic hot water – Code of practice".

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David

You're right. I was driven to comment after only reading the draft scope which is viewable without registering, but you need to register to review the document itself. Its relatively painless & requires the minimum of information.

David