Tuesday, September 11, 2007

In search of... digital displays

Bored with a perfectly running system, we've been twiddling with the controller dials, changing the max & min temperature settings for the two pumps (roof-to-heat exchanger and heat exchanger-to-storage tank).

Most solar hot water systems maintain a steady temperature with a standby electric system. Wanting to believe in the Sun, and to live with more awareness of Gaia's moods and seasons, we opted to leave the standby electric system disconnected. This had us wanting to know, specifically, how hot the fluids were at various times and in various weather conditions.

Reading the manual for our Goldline GL-10 controller, we learnt of the TD-GL, a digital temperature display. We printed and studied the manual off the web, and asked our installer, Mark, to order us one. Mark reported that this hasn't been manufactured for years, nor could he find us a used one!

What Mark could find, and we look forward to, is a controller by Steca. This should give us the digital data to better log our experience.

Monday, September 10, 2007

Waiting for rain

On Thursday, I ran into David K at Art & Truth on the Roof (organized by Cat N of WEAN) who asked: what happened to this blog? It seemed to have just stopped, in mid-stream.

Well, days and days of cloudless skies makes for a very successful (and boring) solar installation. Yes, we have hot water. And yes, as much as we may want. We await thunder showers to make this story interesting.