About Privateer Systems

We are a small engineering group based in central Europe, focused on making solar thermal heating practical, affordable, and independent of subsidies.

What we do

We design and build drainback solar thermal systems — the hardware, the firmware, and the control software. Everything from the copper collectors on the roof to the RS485 network protocol that ties the system together is our own work.

Our goal is a solar heating system that pays for itself within three years, runs autonomously without internet connectivity, and lasts decades with minimal maintenance.

How we work

We write all our own embedded code in C++17. Our boards run bare-metal firmware on RP2350 microcontrollers — no operating system, no cloud dependency, no subscription. Configuration is via USB serial terminal.

The hardware is designed in KiCad and fabricated in small batches. We use all-copper collectors for maximum thermal conductivity and long service life.

This website

This site is built with MarqueDown, our own lightweight site engine. Content is authored in Markdown, stored in a git repository, and served from memory via FastCGI. There is no database, no CMS, and no JavaScript framework.