plastic hot water tank with heat pump backup
 

Hi to all

My solar hot warer tank is maded from a 1000L PP plastic tank used for chemichal produts, inside I have 4 pieces of beer keg 50L each, 10cm insulation, the top of the tank is used for storing.
The heat pump is a 24000btu R22 external unit with a direct heat in the tank with a copper coil 40m long, diam. 9.52mm.

I made a test to heat the tank to 60 deg Celsius and it works fine, I must test this at low temperatures 0 deg C. From 40C to 46 in 1h

I will made the controller for the heat pump with arduino, the solar controller is maded with arduino with data loged on xively

I will put picture and links later, I'm to new hear.

The heat pump is modified a litle, I made to run in the summer whet the oustide temperature is more then 5 C and with water in the winter when is 5 C bellow (the winter side is not ready yet).
I do not know if it was worth it, but it was the simpliest way to start fror somewere, without masive change for pipings.
If you have some tips for this setup please leave a comment.

I made a litle schetch to understand beter what I thought.

The schetch
Attachment 3481

Outside unit panasonic R22 24000 btu
Attachment 3480

tank
Attachment 3482 Attachment 3483 Attachment 3485 Attachment 3484

Inside and outside the tank
Attachment 3486 Attachment 3487

Solar and heat pump heat exchanger
Attachment 3489 Attachment 3488

Why is there a reversing valve? Ground source doesn't need to defrost.

I got the air conditioner with this valve and made minimal change posible.
The ground surce part is not done yet and maybe I'll use in this winter.
I invest just in the coper coil, external unit I received for free from a friend.

How thick is the insulation?

insulated with extruded polistyren in most of the parts, 10cm.
temperature loss is ~2 Celsius in 6 hours.
logged data from xivley for beter improving https://xively.com/feeds/541753585
the pump and the heatpump is not logged, rapid heating of the tank is with heat pump turned on.

link?
 

May want to check your link, shows up bad for me?

This thread is almost 4 years old.. Links are probably bad.