Introduction

Whenever the term Solar Water heating gets mentioned, one's mind immediately focuses on the domestic scene, as this is the area where, as an individual, the plant engineer gets attacked with junk post and evening telephone salespeople offering the earth and costing a price based on some well conceived payback calculation formulae.

In a commercial organization or plant, the provision of domestic washing or canteen water is one of those overlooked services which tends to get neglected, forgotten and probably, as a stand alone item, may remain a very expensive and neglected commodity, with electric water heaters, probably with incorrectly set thermostats, running all hours and costing a small fortune.

Some plant engineers may be able to take advantage of surplus heat from steam or condensate systems, process excesses, compressor cooling systems or some other form of heat recovery systems etc. in order to augment their hot water provision costs.

Over the past few years there have been great strides forward in the development of solar collecting devices which range in design, cost effectiveness and efficiency levels and overall developments.

Apart from the provision of the domestic requirements for hot or warm water there are many other requirements within commercial premises. Processes, which cover quite a wide range of activities, or lend themselves to at least, be considered for solar heating applications. Laundries, dye works process washing and cleansing plants, although initially provision by means of solar panels may not cover the whole application, there...