scored 2- 4'x8' solar water heaters

[picmacmillan]

 someone gave me 2 solar water heating panels the other day, so, my poodle and me decided to take one apart to see what goodies were in there





  we took the glass panel off and under it was copper piping spaced every 4 1/2 inches apart

the piping was covered by some aluminum sheeting that looked like it was painted black at one time...there was some fiberglass insulation on the otherside of the piping...the only thing i wasn't sure of is that there were two tiny wires attached to a little gizmo on the exit pipe....not sure if you can tell what it is from the photo

overall they are very simplistic, i don't know anything more about them or if they work well, but it is a manufactured panel.....any ideas if this thing is worth cleaning up?...there are two of them.....i thought maybe someone could build one like it just by looking at the pictures.......pickster

[tinker]

It is most likely either a thermocouple or thermostat,most commercial installations use them to turn on a circulating pump.

[picmacmillan]

  i just had an email from someone who explained what i need...i won't use his name to respect his privacy, but i am grateful....thanks W   ...Randy (pickster)

 the two wires that you have coming out of the collector go to the differential thermostat control box that turn the circulating pump on and aff.

 The control box has another set of terminals that go to the water storage tank.  When the solar heater gets  about 14-17 deg. hotter than the storage tank the pump turns on and runs until the solar collector gets about 7 deg. hotter than the tank then the pump turns off

[iFred]

Yep! Thats cool.. Nice picky! I would go for it. clean it up and make it work, it's worth it.

[windyknight]

Just about to build one so really wanted to look at the pictures but keeps telling me they're not on the server! any ideas?

keith