No more Overheating

    No longer do you have to worry about your solar hot water system when you are away on vacation.  
    There is no need to cover the collectors during the summer.  The system FREEstate ENERGY
    installs uses a process called "steam-back".

    When in steam back mode, the collectors heat up and evaporate off the water in the solar fluid.  
    This water vapor increases the pressure in the collectors and forces the liquid out of the collectors
    and into an expansion tank.

    Steam-back can occur for some of these reasons:
  • During the summer, there is more energy than required to heat the water.  Once the tanks reach
    their maximum temperature, the system shuts down for the day.
  • You go on vacation.  The system only adds enough heat to get to the maximum temperature
  • The power goes out.  In a typical system, this could be a major problem.  With the steam-back
    system, this is not an issue.  The system just goes into steam-back mode.

    Freeze Protection
    Freeze protection is a key component in thermal system design.  FREEstate ENERGY installs a
    closed-loop glycol system.  This “closed-loop” is between the collectors and a heat exchanger in the
    storage tank.  This loop is filled with a combination of glycol and water.  The glycol is for freeze
    protection.  Glycol is similar to anti-freeze, but is a food grade quality, so it can be used near your
    domestic water.

    Why is Overheating an issue?
    With the steam-back system, as installed by FREEstate ENERGY, overheating is not a
    possibility.  In a traditional system, when the system overheats, the glycol can start to break down,
    it begins to lose its freeze protection.  After a number of overheating incidents, there is a possibility
    of freezing and bursting a pipe.
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