I pressure-tested the "tank half" by adding pipe caps to two of the connectors, and a Schrader valve (tire stem) to the third.
I then pumped up the tank with an air compressor, and checked the pressure. The next day when I checked it, there was only about half as much pressure. It lost quite a bit over night.
I'm not sure if that's because of a leak in the tank, or if I just did a bad job with the pipe tape, and screwing all the connectors together. I think it may be the later. I did need several adapters to get from the 3/4" pipe to the air valve, so there's several places I could have just not gotten everything to seal exactly right.
Today, I put the Schrader valve on the heat exchanger side of the tank. I already had a boiler valve on the one end, so I just closed it. The other end of the pipe already had the right size adapter to thread the air valve right in.
I again pressurized it with my portable tire inflator. Much quicker to pump up this time. The tank is 65 gallons. That took a while to put air in there. (Ever pump up a 65 gallon tire!?) The heat exchanger filled with compressed air very quickly. I checked the pressure, and then rechecked it six hours later. It read the same pressure.
The fun part was that just by opening the boiler valve, I could let all the air out real fast! WHOOOOOOOSHSSSSHSHHSHSHHHH!
I removed the 4'x10' solar collector from its wooden frame. That way, I could simply place the frame in front of the house where I plan to install it. I used the tape measure and made a diagram, but sometimes it's just so much easier to just DO something and see how it looks!
I raked the leaves away from the house, so that I could more easily use spray paint to mark the ground. Here, you can see the south end of the house, with the wood frame plopped down roughly where it will go.
The frame is a bit smaller than the solar panel. Basically, the frame is about 8' and the panel is 10'. It sticks out a foot on either end. I think that's just because 2x4s come 8' long as a standard. The tape measure behind the wood frame is pulled out to 10' to help you visualize the size of the solar panel.
I leveled the frame as best I could, with two hunks of firewood. The ground slopes away from the house, but I want to make sure the frame is nice and level. I plan to mount the frame on four 4x4" posts sunk in to the ground. I don't think they will be cemented, rather I will dig holes, fill the bottom of each hole with at least 6" of gravel, add the posts, and then surround them with gravel and pack it down. Once the posts are in the ground, I will cut the tops of them to be level with each other. I plan to leave the posts 18"-24" above the ground. That way, the entire solar collector will be elevated, to keep it up out of the snow.
I also went down into my crawl-space. Mine is cement floor, and cinder-block walls, typical of most basements in our area. The only difference is that my basement is only 20" deep. I keep a mechanics creeper down there so that I can roll around on my back whenever I need to do something down there. (Sorry, no photos, it's dark and disorienting down there anyways!)
The exposed cement block walls down there are two-and-one-half blocks tall. Seeing as how cinder blocks are 8" tall, I think that means that there are really three rows of block, but the bottom block is partly covered by a 4" cement slab.
I'm not sure exactly how far down to knock the hole in the cement block. I'd like it to be underground, to visually hide where the pipe penetrates the house. (This IS the FRONT side of the house, just so you know!) Looking at how a typical cement block is made, it has two hollow cavities in it, side by side. I figure I need to knock a hole through the center-left or the center-right of a block. If I do that in the middle row of block, that's only 12" down from the bottom of my floor. (8" block, plus one half of an 8" block, 4" = 12")
If I drill into the bottom-most layer of block, the one half covered by the slab, I may be close enough to the floor, that the floor interfere's with the handle of the hammer-drill. Also, I really want to put a 4" PVC pipe through the block to act as a conduit and cover for the solar fluid pipes. Those two pipes are about 2" in diameter, each, once they have good insulation on them. The 4" PVC pipe is what will be cemented into the wall. It will extend out of doors (hopefully mostly buried!) and protect the pipe insulation outside from sun, weather, and animals.
I was also originally going to have the house penetration at the left-most end of the solar panel. (The cold water inlet to the panel is at the bottom left-of the panel as you look at it.) But after thinking some more about it, that may leave some PVC pipe as an ugly visual. I think I would rather have the 4" PVC pipe come out BEHIND the solar panel. From there, the two 1/2 pipes to and from the collector would split up and go to either end.
I also wasn't sure how far away from the house I wanted the collector. Ideally, I would like it as close to the house as possible, just to look nice. However, there is a window planter box right there as well. With the height of the collector, plus the 4x4 posts to get it up out of the snow, it looked like the solar panel would cover the window box.
When my wife came outside to see where I was planning to put the solar collector, she said "Why don't you just move the window box to the other window?". Sure enough, the other window doesn't have a window box. Never has. The one weekend I was out of town, and my Dad snuck over to build window boxes, he ran out of cedar. All the windows down the other side of the house have boxes, as does the right one, but the left one doesn't. If I just move that box to the other window, I can have the solar panel closer to the house, and everything should look nice.
To get the solar panel nice and close to the house, the two post holes closest to the house need to be 12" from it. I'll have to take a look at the tool rental place to see how big the handles and things on post-hole digging machines are. I need to know that I can did those holes that close to the house.
The other thing I still don't know, is how far I need to go down before I hit water. We live down the street from the lake. It's a few blocks away, but not much lower than us. I also have spring in my front yard, just off the road.
When I dig down, who knows what I will hit!!?!?
(Although from inside the crawl-space, I did confirm that there is no electric, water, or gas pipes coming through the south foundation wall. Gas pipe is on the west side of the house. Well is on the east, and the electric box is on the north-west corner.)