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The world slows down, but construction continues! Framing has been completed. The shed wall isn't exactly plumb, but it's level. Good enough! I siliconed (black silicone) the wood to keep moisture out on back side. Next is the 1" polyiso board (staggered). Then pine 3/4"x 1.5"s to finish the glazing support. Glazing support is set back 1/2" to allow the polycarbonate to be siliconed on the outside. I put 2" strips of polyiso on the inside edge of the frame to finish up the insulation. Currently working on putting up the 1/2" OSB panels over the polyiso. All the piping/ collector fins will be eventually stapled to the OSB.
The underground insulated pex I got is the reflexive bubble wrap inside of drain tile style. Some online sources point out they can lose a ton of heat if water gets into the pipe. Does anyone have experience with wood boiler pipe like this? I was thinking I might install sock drain tile pipe beneath it just incase the pipe ever got punctured to keep it dry enough. Possibly a drain hole at the low point of the underground boiler pipe just to give the water an escape route in case water ever did get in? https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...9&d=1585279404 https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...0&d=1585279404 https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...1&d=1585279404 https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...2&d=1585279404 https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...3&d=1585279404 https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...4&d=1585279404 https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...5&d=1585279404 https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...6&d=1585279404 https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...7&d=1585279404 https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...8&d=1585279404 |
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Had nice weather yesterday before rain moved in, so prioritized making sure the OSB was protected enough since it shouldn't get wet & I don't have plastic laying around. Sealed up all the seams with silicone & painted over with flat black spray paint.
For additional protection, I used aluminum facia trim for a roof. Scrap block pieces from the glazing support gave it a little pitch. Screwed it down with roofing screws that were laying around. When things dry up, installing the pex-al-pex pipe & absorber fins will be next. Also, looking at the actual dimensions & depending how I do the glazing the collector area is looking more like 118-125 square feet. https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...0&d=1585405794 https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...1&d=1585405794 https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...2&d=1585405794 https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...3&d=1585405794 https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...4&d=1585405794 |
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Construction continues into the slow tedious phase of collector pipe and aluminum absorbers. For the back of the absorber I stapled up 3" wide strips of aluminum coilstock. Not sure on the thickness, but good enough I suppose. 8 strips by about 56 feet so about 112 sqft of material.
I'm currently in the middle of stamping out the absorber find & installing them. Helps break up the monotony of either task :) . The front absorber plates are cut with power shears into 6" x 24" blanks. Then my sophisticated stamping process consisting of a wooden form, 5/8" steel rod, junk boards, mallet and a post pounder. With ever 200 to make total, needless to say it will take a while. But when the weather is nice, I can install the absorbers. The pex-al-pex doesn't need a perfect level, just a few beads of silicone for good contact & some narrow crown staples does the trick. Just a matter of time, since this is probably the single most time consuming step of construction. https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...3&d=1586013520 https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...4&d=1586013520 https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...5&d=1586013520 https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...6&d=1586013520 https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...7&d=1586013520 https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...8&d=1586013520 https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...9&d=1586013520 https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...0&d=1586013520 https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...1&d=1586013520 https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...2&d=1586013520 |
Its coming along great!
How much work is it to stamp out those heat spreaders? |
Great progress.
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Absorber fin installation continues! A little over halfway done. I've spray painted completed sections to get an idea what it'll look like finished (as well as a motivation boost!) Straightening out the pex-al-pex takes time and patience. I'm doing my best to keep them equal lengths so the flow is balanced between the 4 separate runs. It sure takes a lot of silicone!
https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...5&d=1586619736 https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...6&d=1586619736 https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...7&d=1586619736 |
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Absorber fins and painting are done! I did my best to make everything an equal length, but I'm sure each run will be off a bit.
Does anyone have an idea how much difference in flow there might be between the 4 loops or how much this could impact performance? Say if there were 6-9" differences in loop lengths? Extra valves & gauges to balance things perfectly could add up. Maybe adding ball valves & use an IR camera with glazing off to see imbalances? I'm guessing higher flow in one loop would show up cooler than the others? Anyways, the next step is digging a trench for the piping. I will be laying draintile underneath the wrap style insulated pipe to protect it from getting water inside of it. It will have the added benefit of keeping the yard & basement a little dryer! https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...8&d=1587221449 https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...9&d=1587221449 https://ecorenovator.org/forum/attac...0&d=1587221449 |
It looks like your setup is roughly 62 feet (750 inches) long? So, plus or minus 9 inches isn't going to matter much at all. 9/750 = .012, so 1% flow difference. Not worth any worry.
It look awesome by the way! |
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Since my last post, I've gotten the underground pipe in (mostly). It was easily a week of digging and probably the hardest part of the whole project so far since it was mostly done with just a shovel. Rocks are not fun! Basically I dug down 28"-30" made sure everything had a slight slope with a level. I then laid landscape fabric along the bottom of the trench. Over the fabric I laid about 1" layer of washed river rock. Over that base layer of rock I laid a 4" socked perforated corrugated pipe. Then filled the pipe up to its top with more river rock. The extra landscape fabric in the trench folded over the top over the rock & pipe like a big ol' burrito. Theeeeen, my corrugated underground boiler pipe laid over the drain pipe and I buried by a few inches with some of the nicer soil. I put some strips of 250 psi XPS polyiso over that. I figured it would add some insulation & strength to protect the boiler pipe. The rest of the trench I could backfill with rockier and rougher soil. At the lowest part of the boiler pipe before it pokes up near the house, I put a bunch of holes in the outside of it in a 1-2 foot section. That style of boiler pipe is basically useless if it fills with water. By keeping the surround soil dry with the drainage below it, then sloping it to a drained low point, it should allow any water that eventually works it's way in to be naturally drained through those holes. Boy I really hope it does, because it was a lot of work to dig it up again! In retrospect, I would've gone with thermopex. What remains: 1. Hooking up pipes & run sensor wires 2. Run pump & check for leaks 3. Wiring controls 4. Attach glazing 5. The separate pump & controls for the furnace heat exchanger (less important as we're coming out of the heating season). 6. Make things pretty, maybe cut down a few trees if they block the panel too much. |
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