Solar heat's working! Thank you all!

[huntedheads]

First I want to say THANK YOU to Other power and all who hang out here! Without this site I most likely would not have done this, keep up the flow of free knowledge. I came here to make a wind gen and found out quickly I live in the wrong place for that, in town surrounded by two story houses would need tower tall enough to take out a couple of cars and maybe a swing set if it ever came down not to mention what would happen if a blade should ever decide to fly off so I went to solar heat and I cant believe the free heat the sun puts out! It should be illegal NOT to use it in new construction!

First I built a collector with 13 1/2" tubes 76" long. 13 because that's all I could fit in.





The collector plate is metal roofing the idea was half of the collector would be looking directly at the morning AND evening sun. The roofing was rolled over a 55 gal. drum to give it an arc then the tubes were screwed to it with 52 1/2" copper pipe straps that dont show after the stove black was applied.

Then I built the box with 1" styrofoam back then a layer of fiberglass to take up the dead air space Not a good solar day but it will go to the roof when summer gets here.

Then came my new girlfriend "TACO" The day after it arrived I called my wife from work and asked her to put a blanket over Taco so she would'nt get cold and when I got home there was a note taped to the box that said Help I'm being held hostage by a derainged woman and I can be set free for some kisses and hugs! Just thought it was cute. Notice the high tech "flow control valve" Don't know if it will be needed after it's on the roof but it's there.





I didn't build this to make DHW it's for heat because that's my biggest bill in the winter so I plumed it to a heater core from a 1989 Chevy Caprice because I had two 5" fans in the basement and it's the rite size for them.

Yesterday it put out 110 degree water for over 6 hours. I can't heat the house it's too big but I can hold the temp! The furnace never ran once the whole day and I never gained OR lost any temp either!

Now on to the next step. After the heat exchanger I want to plumb in the water heater. I have a electric water heater to use as a solar tank I am takeing out the top element to modify for a water port here is my question.

I don't want the second pump so I plan to run 20' of 1/2" inside 19 1/2' of 3/4 soft copper with the usual tee's I see used but then I am going to bend this around a 10" pully to make a spring so to speak, should be 8ish turns streatch it out to reach the drain and intake port of the tank and hope the thermo syphon will work. I know it's pretty horizontal but it WILL be a little up hill. I think it will work? Anyone done this?

And remember this was built to heat the house in winter and the hot tub in summer. The DHW is just a little added bonus.

[Stonebrain]

congratulations!

For heating solar is a good choice,much more cost effectif then making electricity for heating.

Just one comment.

Normally it's more interesting to produce DHW (=domestic hot water I suppose) then space heating.

With the the surface you have you can probably make all of your hot water in summer and a part of it in winter.In other words you use 100% of the heat produced.

In the case of spaceheating you can use only the heat produced in winter and in summer you have to dump the heat or cover the collector.In general that means you use much less then 50% of the potential.

As a consequence, in case your installation is for DHW only it's smart to orientate the panels that way you have the maximum year round yield.that means an inclination of about 45° directed south.

If you boost your system(increasing the surface) and has to much hot water in summer it 's good to orientate the panels that way that it's suboptimal for summer and optimal for winter.That means a more vertical position of the collectors(60° or more).In that case you can have excess heat in winter that you can use for spaceheating.

Don't know if your way of orientating the collectors is very efficient.I'm afraid the losses on non heated back outweight the gain of the double surface.

Personally I would orientate them south and isolate the back.

I can't answer your question about the thermosiphon.For calculation you need to know things like the diam and length of the tube,the difference in t° between the hot water going in and the cooler water coming out and the difference in height and not sure if someone over here know the math to calculate the resulting flow.Maybe someone tried out a similar setup but in that case you have to give more details.Or just try it out.

cheers,

Jaap

 

[vawtman]

 Hi Heads

 I too have girlfreind named Taco(lol) and a solenoid valve to play with along with an 8ft sattelite dish to be wound with black tubing.

 I plan to use that and the turbine to preheat water in a large tank in the basement.What you could do is buy another tank(water heater) or find one and circulate your water through it by removing both elements or the supply and feed.It would serve has preheater to your existing heater.Those pumps don't draw much more than a 100w bulb.

 Anyhoo very nice work and hope your snow leaves soon.Ahhh a hot tub dump load courtesy of your girlfreind.I like that heater core and muffin fan idea.

 Just thoughts

[freeEnergy4me]

That is cool. How are you heating your home? Is the water running thru the core and the fan is blowing the heat?

Have you tried or thought about heat in your flooring? Passing the water in pipes under your floor? The heat then rises constantly.

What would be cool is to heat the water to a high temp, store it for the evening in a large container then cycle it through a radiator or floor type system in the evening.

I've been giving this a lot of thought because heat is my biggest bill as well. I'm trying to figure a way to cycle engine oil thru something similar to your water heater. I figure engine oil could store the heat for several hours into the night and would absorb heat quickly in the sun.

The main issue is night time for me. My house faces south, so on a sunny day my house is pretty warm even on a January day with low the heat set low. It's the evenings without sunshine that make my heat bill high.

[huntedheads]

Normally it's more interesting to produce DHW (=domestic hot water I suppose) then space heating.

With the the surface you have you can probably make all of your hot water in summer and a part of it in winter.In other words you use 100% of the heat produced

I will use 100%. I will be heating the hot tub come summer they need to be about 103 degrees! so I do have a year round use for the heat. And the collector will go to the roof come summer also oriented @ my lattitude + 23 degrees? I think? It's printed upstairs in a file somewhere, I'll find it when it's time. I will be setting it directly into the solar noon winter sun.

As for the water tank there is only my wife & I so some preheating is all I'm after if it's free I'll take it.

[huntedheads]

I heat with Natural gas average 5 Ccf a day in winter. And for the heater core the water is pumped into the core first then to the pump back to the collector. Thought about radiant foll heat but have a finished ceiling in the basement. OIL? Put a quart in the freezer over  night and try to pour it out in the morning, It turns into honey! might be too much for the pump.

[jonas302]

Can't wait to see it on the roof kicking out heat!

For the dhw check out ebay for a side arm heat exchanger they can be built at home to and definatly thermosyphon well

[GeeMac]

A small questions for the experts. Is the water pumped through the system or does it naturally circulate using heat to move the water?