SolarTron is a Canadian company that has been making energy saving products for a number of years and marketing in throughout Canada, USA and Latin America. It has further entered into the alternative energy market by bringing out the SolarBeam solar concentrator to be used as a hot water heating system.

The SolarBeam solar collector works on the principle of the parabolic curved reflector, which has been found to be the most efficient in collecting solar energy. The curve of the reflector catches and concentrates the rays of the sun on to a specific spot increasing the performance of the reflector by a big margin. The SolarTron water heater that uses this technology has estimated that it is more than 262% more efficient than hot water panels and 98% more efficient than evacuated tube technology.

What makes the SolarBeam better

The SolarBeam solar concentrator is so efficient for two reasons. One is that it uses a high quality, durable metal for the reflective surface that is both long lasting and anti corrosive, being able to tolerate both salt spray as well as acid rain. The other is that it uses a patent pending celestial tracking technology so that the concentrator is always perpendicular to the sun’s rays. This ensures that the concentrator works at top efficiency the whole day, and even in different seasons when the position of the sun can change by a large margin.

The concentrator is basically a large parabolic reflective surface that concentrates the sun’s energy on to a small area called the concentrator. This concentrator is only 10′x10′ in size, but because there is so much of solar energy concentrated on to such a small area, it is able to generate 13 kw of energy or in other words 44,000 BTU per hour.

Just behind the concentrator is the heat exchanger that transfers the heat from the concentrator to the water. Because the concentrator is so efficient, it is able to heat water from 4 °C to 90 °C in a very short while. There is an internal safety mechanism that causes the SolarBeam collector to change direction, not allowing the water to get heated to more than this temperature, ensuring the safety of your heating equipment.

Not only is it more efficient, it is also quite cost competitive when compared with existing solar water heaters and ROI has been calculated at just over 6 yrs. Because the parabolic curve design is so good, it is also quite efficient in low sunlight levels, and can heat water to a comfortable temperature, while existing hot water panels and evacuated tube designs cannot.

The device is also very safe, being constructed so that the concentrator is 12′ above the ground to keep it away from people and animals. It can also withstand winds up to 140 kph. Whether it is for residential use or for industrial use, this device makes good sense, especially in those locations that have good sunlight year round. It can also be used for cooling purposes if used in tandem with an absorption chiller.

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