How to make a solar hot water controller

[niall]

interesting that Phil ...

windmills seem to have a " i want one " factor , pv a little less ...but still mysterious ....

solar water heating doesn't have the same glamour .........maybe thats it ?
i suffer from the " i want one" syndrome..

Builditsolar is great .....and most of the bits are available in the local hardware .......

hope it was ok to go of topic a bit Oz.........the controller is the magic bit.....

[ghurd]

I never had many issues with transformers, or didn't try to find out what the problem was in something that had a bad one.
Most of mine fail from operator error.  Amazing how fast a shorted output smokes them. 

The fuse holders are soldered, the fuses are not, so thats a point back to me

I saw that on yours.  My comment was sort of on topic, since the last 10 relays and 100 fuses I changed were soldered in, which is what made me say that.
I miss the days when smaller (200~600W) inverters had fuses on the back that could be changed in 30 seconds.  Now gotta open the thing up, take it appart, de-solder the blown fuses, cut half the tab off the new ones, THEN solder them in, then put it all back together... Who's idea was that?

My solder guy has taken to adding an inline automotive fuse holder hanging free out the back for some of his regular customers who seem to blow fuses faster than he can change them.  (and no, that's not me)
G-