View Single Post
Old 09-08-09, 08:30 AM   #4
bennelson
Home-Wrecker
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: SE Wisconsin
Posts: 546
Thanks: 3
Thanked 165 Times in 96 Posts
Default

My current plan involves ground-mounting the 4x10 solar collector in front of the SE corner of my house.

This will ensure that I don't have to put any holes through my roof, don't have to lift the panel up there, and if I want to "show off" the panel, it's on the ground for easy viewing.

I will run the panel pipes to a heat exchanger connected to a solar storage tank. Likely, that will be a modified electric hot water heater. I have an old one I found on the curb to experiment with, but it has a lot of hard-water mineral buildup on the bottom of it.



In theory, the water in the modified electric water heater should thermo-siphon through the heat exchanger. Anti-freeze in the "closed-loop" of the solar panel will need to be pumped through.

It seems that the simplest way to run a pump is to use a DC pump connected to a PV panel. When the sun is shining on the hot water panel, it also shines on the PV panel, and the pump runs, moving the heated anti-freeze from the solar panel to the heat exchanger.

I have heard good things about the "El-Sid" DC pump for use with solar setups.

Of course, I still need to figure out all of my shut-offs, valves, and other connections that have to go on the whole system. AND make it all fit in a small utility room that already has my laundry, pantry, furnace, pressure tank, water softener, etc.
__________________

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
bennelson is offline   Reply With Quote