Sunspot.. I took one look at that storage tank and had to jump in here to compliment you.
that is an extremely well built tank which will serve you well for many years to come. Way to GO!
I also have a solar hot water system here at my house I put together over time.. and after reading some of your thread I thought I'd just shoot out a few things on how I setup my system.
Return Collector Water.
I used 3/4 copper TO and FROM.. all the way back to my drainback storage tank for 2 reasons. Ease of water flow when collector pump shuts down and to combat high stagnation returning water temps. So far so good. Water returns very quickly and never a problem with higher then normal water temps.
Collector Head Pressure and Pump Speed:
I use a Resol DeltaSol BS Plus solar controller on my system to operate my collector pump/s which happens to be a Grundfos Pump.
The controller allows me to set/adjust the water flow/pressure/pump speed after initial startup of the pump, so I have mine set to run at full speed (100% pump speed) for about 10 seconds then drop down to 40% pump speed. It does it automatically for you once you are done setting up the controller to your specific specs, which is sweet. You can mess around with different pump run percentages to fine tune things on the fly.
Pre-Heating Your Storage Tank with Wood Stove:
Personally? I think that's a great idea. Of course we would all like it better if we had full sun on our collectors from 6:30am to 5:30am every day of the week but that's just never going to happen... so yes! Having a wood stove involved with the process is a kick butt way to heat your storage water up in a very short amount of time.
Once heated...The GIANT SIZE of your storage tank allows you to circulate this stored hot water thru your radiators/radient floor etc., for a much longer periord of time. Great idea for sure.
My System:
I only have 2/ 20 tube evacuated tube collectors in place so my storage tank size is only 45 gallons. It's a used Superstor stainless steel tank I picked up for cheapo bucks.
I run the hot water from that tank out to a very long Runtal Radiator mounted on one wall of my big family room to supplement heat in that area of the house. The Runtal radiators work great with lower water temps because of their design, so I got lucky to find one used when I did.
At the same time my returning collector water is heating my 45 gallon storage tank (for radiator use) my return pipe splits off in order to preheat a tank tied in before my domestic electric hot water heater.
but back to your system..
Plan on as many collectors as you can get for that big tank and by all means, and as long as you can do it health wise.. keep using that stove to preheat that big tank. I honestly believe you'll do real well doing it that way because the amount of volume you have in that big tank will hold the hot water temps for many many hours.
Good for you Sir!
Have a great Holiday Season and keep up the great work!
