Product Overview

Main Products:

Thermomax is proud to offer a complete line of products to suit your solar heating needs. We stand behind our quality. Systems installed since the early 1980's are still performing efficiently and are saving their owners a substantial percentage of their heating bills.

Standard designs (including DIY) for Domestic Hot Water (DHW) systems are available. These vary depending on your locations and whether the area is subject to freezing. A Thermomax solar heating system is easy to install and a complete DHW installation can be completed within a day or two. Installation is straightforward for both new buildings and retrofits. In fact, the collector is so light and modular that it can be installed by just one person.

Ask us about custom designs for integrating solar DHW with woodstoves, hot tubs, pools, radiant heating etc.

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Green Emissions
Many people already appreciate the need to reduce fossil fuel emissions - particularly carbon dioxide. In north America every kilowatt hour of electricity produces about 2.2 lbs. of CO2. In most areas only $100 worth of electricity puts well over one ton of CO2 into the atmosphere!

Even natural gas (methane) will produce over seven tones of CO2 annually from an average house, and because methane is such a powerful greenhouse gas, tiny leaks in the system pollute a great deal. Put another way, a domestic Thermomax system annually prevents the equivalent pollution of one car!

Payback
Our solar heating systems pay for themselves many times over in their 20+ year lifetime, depending on fuel cost increases and adaptability towards using solar energy. What else can you buy that even begins to pay for itself?

When looked at as a return on investment, a quality Thermomax solar system is actually a far better investment than most pension plans. The return on investment on a Thermomax system is generally over 5% and it can be as high as 14%.  As utility prices rise the return on investment will rise, increasing the original value. More importantly, you own the system, therefore it can never be a bad investment! You can even take it with you if you move!

What Do I Do Next?

• See our animated applications for general schematics of Solar Heating systems
• Take a look at our Solar DHW Packages
• Peruse our Catalog for components and parts
• Contact us to find the location of your nearest Thermomax dealer

Collector Description

The Thermomax Solar Collector 'unit' consists of a manifold and tubes. The manifold is the largest component of the collector unit, and is the structure in which the tubes are individually clamped. Manifolds come in two sizes, a 20 tube or a 30 tube. For larger solar heating demand, the manifolds are connected in series to fulfill your heating needs.

Thermomax offers several roof mounting kits to allow optimal angle positioning of the collector suitable for your situation. The collectors can also be installed on the ground.

Thermomax Evacuated Solar Tubes

Thermomax Evacuated Solar Tubes are different from any other. A tube will not boil, freeze or corrode. It is lightweight, attractive, maintenance free and pays for itself. It performs well in all weather, operates automatically, has overheating protection built in and is totally safe. This provides a diode function and the important safety protection against overheating. This is unique to Thermomax.

The tubes are engineered around a super efficient conducting "heat-pipe", sitting within the evacuated tube. Solar energy strikes the absorber plate attached to the heat pipe, heating the fluid within the pipe, starting a vaporization-condensation cycle that transfers heat to the cylindrical heat-exchanger at the top of the tube. From only a few minutes on a bright day the cylindrical heat exchanger gets hot enough to burn your hand, though the glass tube stays cool.

Adding Heat to a Hot System

Collector efficiency remains high in diffused light (cloudy and semi-clear conditions). On an annual over 70% of the available energy from the sky is converted into heat regardless of the intensity of light. This collector can add heat to your hot water tank even on a cold and windy day!

Thermomax tubes pull the best vacuum in the industry (meaning the space within the glass tube contains no air). The better the vacuum within the tube, the fewer molecules there are providing heat losses. The vacuum also safeguards the collector against the effects of humidity and condensation. The lower the heat losses of the tube, the higher the efficiency and the better the collector can add heat to a hot system. Thermomax collectors can add heat to a system already at 60-80 degrees C (140-176 F), making them also applicable for space heating applications.

Independent tests have shown that the energy output of a Thermomax collector is two to three times that of an equal size "flat-plate" panel on an annual basis. Flat plates are well known for a large heat losses at higher temperatures.

A moderate sized Thermomax system can supply 60-70% of your annual hot water requirements, with the remainder supplied by either a gas or electricity backup. These characteristics combine to make a Thermomax installation truly all weather, year round system.

Tanks

We offer two lines of solar hot water tanks from 50-120 Gallon: glass lined (like our domestic electric tank), and full stainless steel. We have a wide range of tanks to choose from, ranging from single coil basic tanks to full multiple coil tanks that allow your to live off the grid and heat both your home and your water. We stand behind our quality.

316L Stainless Steel Tanks

Retro Fit Heat Exchanger's

Our Wand heat exchanger can be fitted into any new or existing hot water tank. This opens up solar hot water to many homes where it might be impractical to change our the existing tank.

The Standard 1.2m (48 inch) long Wand has about 2 square feet of heat transfer area inside the hot water tank. The wand assembly is inserted in the hot water tank by being screwed into the hot water outlet port. The Wand has a small diameter inlet center tube which delivers the hot fluid from the collector to the bottom of the wand. This tube is enclosed in a second tube (the first wall) and the fluid flows up the space between the inlet tube and second tube. A third tube (second wall) is spiral collapsed on the second tube, making mechanical contact for heat transfer over about 60% of the wall leaving an air space. The third tube is vented on top of the wand, so any fluid between the second and third tube is vented into the atmosphere.

The wand is designed to meet the requirements of the AWWA Class DWP (double wall with leak protection). Class DWP "Provides two distinct walls which separate the transfer medium from the potable water and a path to the atmosphere. Failure of either wall is indicated by visual leakage of the transfer medium or potable water and indicates a failure of the heat exchanger". The DWP type provides a higher degree of protection than the SW (Single Wall with no leak detection or DW (Double Wall with no leak detection).

Thermomax also offers a full line of heat exchangers for pool applications (see our catalog or contact us for details).

Installation packages

We are proud to offer full packages for your solar heating needs. The packages are based on the number of people using the water, and/or the level of heating required (space, hot tub, pool, water, commercial, etc.). The packages are flexible to allow upgrades of tanks, controllers, mounting kits and more.

See our Packages page or contact us for details.