There is an amazing post on DailyKos Eco's List on making your own solar heating panel:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/11/29/18348/313
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Friday, January 11, 2008
a mid-January perspective
I'm glad we kept the gas system. Thse days, we keep it on pilot, and I just go down to the basement & turn it up when needed. Within 10-15 minutes, the water is hot enough to shower in. And then I go turn it down, and wait for the sun to shine again! Of course, on the sunny days, the solar collectors & storage system has proved adequate for our 2 morning showers.
At some point, we'll hookup the electric backup with timer & watt meter. Or, we can do some plumbing to feed the gas system from the solar storage tank so it only needs to bring the temperature up from 95 to 115.
The gas dryer remains un-installed. We now have another set of indoor clotheslines installed in our bedroom, which is filled with potted plants as well. The humidifier is used only occasionally now.
For Sep & Oct '07, our gas usage was 3ccf each month. It was 16 & 44ccf in 2006. So I'm estimating that our gas hot water used under 200ccf annually; quite an efficient little system, in retrospect.
At some point, we'll hookup the electric backup with timer & watt meter. Or, we can do some plumbing to feed the gas system from the solar storage tank so it only needs to bring the temperature up from 95 to 115.
The gas dryer remains un-installed. We now have another set of indoor clotheslines installed in our bedroom, which is filled with potted plants as well. The humidifier is used only occasionally now.
For Sep & Oct '07, our gas usage was 3ccf each month. It was 16 & 44ccf in 2006. So I'm estimating that our gas hot water used under 200ccf annually; quite an efficient little system, in retrospect.
Report on the Steca digital display
9/12/07 Goldline controller was replaced by the Steca controller. We decided to log the date & time, outside temp, roof temp & tank temp. Some sample readings...
10/1/07 @ 730am, roof was 57 and tank 127
10/15/07 @ 7am, roof was 48 and tank 123
10/26/07 @ 630p, roof was 57 and tank 87 after a dark day. Not warm enough, when we so wanted a hot shower.... that we hesitantly lit the pilot on our gas water heater (still inline!) and started it up. Wallowing in the decadent luxury of a long, hot shower, we trotted down to the basement at 9p and turned off the gas water heater.
10/27/07 @ 1230p, roof was 91 and tank 83. It was the fourth dark day, and the sun had come out for a bit. It was touching to hear the heat exchanger pumps start up after so many days of silence.
11/8/07 @ 7a, roof was 35 and tank 99. Not bad since we had a party the night before and had washed many more dishes than usual. We've also noticed that the temperature at the faucet felt warmer that the digital reading.
11/25/07 @ 7a was a clear bright day. The roof was 28 and the tank 113. We reminded ourselves that Afshin had taken a shower after sun-down the day before and rejoiced at getting 113 on the morning of our first frost. One shower later, the tank was at 106. Knowing our supply would be replenished today, I happily did the dishes, some laundry, and mopped the floors. After all that, at 930a, the tank showed 81.
However, the next day, after 2 showers, and measuring over 100 degrees at the sink, we wondered why the display was only showing 67. Observing this for a day or so (and coasting on the back-up gas system), we decided the controller had died and unplugged it.
Power down and up fixed it.
10/1/07 @ 730am, roof was 57 and tank 127
10/15/07 @ 7am, roof was 48 and tank 123
10/26/07 @ 630p, roof was 57 and tank 87 after a dark day. Not warm enough, when we so wanted a hot shower.... that we hesitantly lit the pilot on our gas water heater (still inline!) and started it up. Wallowing in the decadent luxury of a long, hot shower, we trotted down to the basement at 9p and turned off the gas water heater.
10/27/07 @ 1230p, roof was 91 and tank 83. It was the fourth dark day, and the sun had come out for a bit. It was touching to hear the heat exchanger pumps start up after so many days of silence.
11/8/07 @ 7a, roof was 35 and tank 99. Not bad since we had a party the night before and had washed many more dishes than usual. We've also noticed that the temperature at the faucet felt warmer that the digital reading.
11/25/07 @ 7a was a clear bright day. The roof was 28 and the tank 113. We reminded ourselves that Afshin had taken a shower after sun-down the day before and rejoiced at getting 113 on the morning of our first frost. One shower later, the tank was at 106. Knowing our supply would be replenished today, I happily did the dishes, some laundry, and mopped the floors. After all that, at 930a, the tank showed 81.
However, the next day, after 2 showers, and measuring over 100 degrees at the sink, we wondered why the display was only showing 67. Observing this for a day or so (and coasting on the back-up gas system), we decided the controller had died and unplugged it.
Power down and up fixed it.
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.
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.
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.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
the Saturday scrap metal run
Saturday morning found us raring to go. After days, the sun was out. This meant not only a great day to make hay but also to heat water and hang laundry on the line!Showered, we cleared the basement of the construction debris, and sorted various metals for our local scrap yard: Geppert Scrap Metals on Wayne Ave in Germantown. They're open most days till 2p, but call 215 842 0122 to check. Today's rate was $1 per pound of copper, $0.50ea per lound of brass, and $0.40 per pound of aluminum. We returned from the scrap run with an additional $30 in our pockets.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Up & running...
Friday 9 am - Mark arrived early, installed the sight glass, hooked up the electrical controls, and made a 50/50 blend of anti-freeze & water.We used gravity to siphon the blend into the heat exchanger. Eight gallons later, the sight glass showed that the
exchanger was full. Turns out only about 1.6 gallons of this is actually inside the collector on our roof.We turned on the water, and miracle of miracles... there was NO leak in the plumbing work done by Afshin in the basement or by Mark along the outside and on the roof!
So, while the tanks were filling up, Mark & Afshin installed the new strut to hold up the collector, insulated all pipes from the roof down to the basement.By noon, Mark was done.
Here's our well-insulated system in the basement. The small white barrel on the left is the heat exchanger, with the grey-colored 80 gallon storage tank to it's right. There are 2 pumps in front. One circulates the antifreeze between the collector plate on the roof and the heat exchanger in the basement while the other pump circulates the water between the heat exchanger and the storage tank. Note the dangling wire over the storage tank.
This is for the backup electric system, which we've refrained from installing. We want to believe that the sun itself will be adequate for our needs.Our old hot water system has been turned off, and is NOT feeding into our hot water line. Although we expect no problems with the new system, for now we've left it so that it's only a flick of a valve and re-igniting the pilot to pull it back into service.
5 pm - Afshin, ready for his first shower, was curious how warm the water was. So, using a kitchen thermometer,
we learnt that the water had heated from 50 degrees F to 94 degrees F. Note that the afternoon had been partly cloudy.Washing dishes later in the evening, Meenal found the water adequately warm.
The next morning, we checked the temp again before showering. It had dropped to 90 degrees F, but the shower still felt envigorating. Note that it was still partly cloudy and in the 80s.
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