SolarRoofs.com’s Premium Skyline® Collectors are the world’s most carefully thought out and practical solar water heating collectors.  They were designed and Patented by Al C. Rich, an inventor with 30 years of solar water heater installation experience.

As the "low hanging Fruit" of the solar world, Al loved solar water heating but didn't like the great difficulty, let alone danger, involved in installing 120 to 160 pound flat plate collectors on a roof or tedious, fragile glass tubes.  Many a sale was lost due to customers not wanting "that Ugly thing on MY roof!"  Al thought long and hard about this dilemma and realized that if this restriction to the mass application of solar water heating was going to change, maybe he was going to have to change it.

Thus the high performance Skyline collector was born and is designed from the ground up to be Attractive, Easy, and Safe to Install. At only 20 inches wide it fits easily under the arm and is easy and safe to carry by one person, ideal for the do-it-yourselfer but powerful enough for large commercial jobs. For most solar water heating applications they easily outperform Evacuated Glass Tube collectors and are far less expensive.

With 21 years of refinement, the exclusive roll-formed all aluminum enclosure is very tough and has passed 150 plus mile per hour wind tests in the laboratory and in the field.

See Tough, Very Tough! below.

Click here for Wind Test.  Click Here for Miami, Dade Wind Certification.

The Skyline collector comes in Two sizes and have 26 Attractive Architectural Trim Colors available. The main difference between the models is length and weight: 

The Skyline 10-01 is 6 feet long by 20 inches wide by 3" thick and weighs a mere 19 pounds. The feed and return are at one end on the standard collector. They have a 2" space between them and up to six 10-01 collectors can be stacked one above the other or up to twelve in a stacked, side by side configuration. See 10-01 Configurations.

The Skyline 20-01 is 12 feet long by 20 inches wide by 3" thick and weighs 38 pounds. The feed and return are at one end. They have a 2" space between them and up to 4, 10-01 collectors can be stacked one above the other or up to 8 in a stacked, side by side configuration. 20-01 collectors have custom options feed through and turnaround collectors extending up to 60' with one feed and return. These collectors are ideal for commercial applications.

Tough, VERY Tough!

Read the Real World Survival Stories (Downloads the pdf version)

Thanks to Al’s extensive marketing experience, he knew customers wanted an attractive collector as well. He thought, “why can’t solar collectors be an attractive architectural feature to a home?” Al succeeded by making the Skyline® collector with a sleek design and the only collector in the world with full skirt trim available in 2 standard and

24 optional architectural colors.

Al designed the collector using high performance, all copper, Thermafin™ absorbers with the revolutionary Crystal Clear coating. Crystal Clear is environmentally benign and boasts an emissivity of approximately 0.10 and absorptivity of approximately 0.95. Al chose ultra light Solar Grade Polycarbonate Structural Sheet for the collector glazing because it is virtually unbreakable, energy efficient and guaranteed weather-resistant. The glazing comes with a 10 year non-prorated warranty, is serviceable for over 20 years and is easy and low cost to replace. With one easy, low cost glazing replacement, Skyline® collectors are serviceable for 40 years or more. 

Skyline® collectors have passed the Solar Rating and Certification Corporation (SRCC) OG100 and Florida Solar Energy Center Collector rating tests. You will find them on the SRCC Website under “Ratings” listed under our founding company’s name, ACR Solar International Corp.

The highly reliable Skyline® collector comes with a Ten Year Limited Warranty. We have designed an easy-to-follow guide that will help guide your planning. If you prefer to talk to us, call our Solar experts at our toll free number (888-801-9060).

For more of the technical information behind Skyline® Solar Collectors click here. You may also download SolarRoofs.com brochures.  Skyline® Collectors are also widely used for Commercial Solar Water Heating systems.  Whatever your solar water heating needs are, SolarRoofs.com has the right Skyline® Solar Collector and system for you!