Posted: Sep 06, 2017 9:39 pm
Latitude and winter temperatures could be the issues
You can get panels that circulate water, but they break in frost, hence the glycol models for frost affected areas (the lowest overnight temperature we've had is -6C/21F, so we have one). I assume there's still a limit to how cold the glycol can handle, and if your area gets colder than that, that could explain their rarity.
But yeah, they've been common here for 40 years, and about 70%+ of houses would have one these days.
[Edit: propylene glycol freezes at -59C/-74F, so while there may be other issues, the panels freezing over isn't one of them. Getting sufficient heat to get the required temps to heat water still could be though.]
You can get panels that circulate water, but they break in frost, hence the glycol models for frost affected areas (the lowest overnight temperature we've had is -6C/21F, so we have one). I assume there's still a limit to how cold the glycol can handle, and if your area gets colder than that, that could explain their rarity.
But yeah, they've been common here for 40 years, and about 70%+ of houses would have one these days.
[Edit: propylene glycol freezes at -59C/-74F, so while there may be other issues, the panels freezing over isn't one of them. Getting sufficient heat to get the required temps to heat water still could be though.]