South East Water, Solar Canteen

The staff canteen at South East Water's Head Office in Snodland has the normal kitchen / cafeteria requirements for hot water, primarily for washing and with a normal requirement for gallons of hot water following the breakfast rush and then lunch, solar hot water seemed a logical choice.

The system was matched carefully to the kitchen's requirements and a system with 3 banks of solar hot water vacuum tubes was seen as the ideal configuration serving a 200 litre water tank. The water tank is configured to be heated by both solar water heating which should provide most of the heating energy through the year and the option of topping up the heat using a the central heating gas boiler which will now be redundant during the summer.

Installing the panels

The installation was carried out addressing all health and safety concerns with barriers and scaffold towers.

solar water heatingThe Solar Collectors, being installed on a flat felt roof were bolted to concrete pads which rest on the flat roof. This ensured that there were no cuts in the roof which might be a problem in the future.

Having a flat roof also mean the collectors could be alligned at an optimum south facing direction and angle from verticle.

The image to the right shows the shadow cast at about 13:00. At midday the shadow is perfectly lined up with the panel.

Using Solar Water heating allows South East Water to:

  • save money on water heating
  • reduce its carbon footprint
  • clearly show its environmental concerns.

The major parts of the system are guaranteed for 25 years and expected to be working for much longer.

Solar Water Heating, How can we assist you?
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Such as number of bedrooms and/or bathrooms, south facing aspect of roof if known,

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