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Old 01-18-11, 10:44 AM   #13
bennelson
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Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: SE Wisconsin
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The PVC adapters were just because I couldn't find anything else that would fit the threads on the tank.

It was an off-the shelf part, at least good enough for testing.

The electric heating elements ports on the side of an electric water heater tank are straight "electric" threads. They are NOT compatible with steel or copper water pipe threads.

Later on, a friend of mine drilled out the old pair of water heater elements and tapped the inside to fit a standard pipe.

I don't know if it would make much of a difference or not if the hot fluid runs on the inside or outside layer of the heat exchanger. I kinda figured that INSIDE would be better, as the heat can ONLY go into the water. If the heated solar fluid is on the OUTSIDE, the heat can go inside to the water, OR to the outside of the heat exchanger. (Obviously, you would have insulation on the outside of the exchanger, but still, some heat would be lost.

This heat exchanger was more an experiment in soldering and design than anything.

The downside to this design is that IT JUST ISN'T THAT MUCH SURFACE AREA! A similar design, but with MULTIPLE tubes running through it would be better. For example, a 2" outside pipe with four pipes running inside it. Of course that would also be a little trickier to build, but also have 4 times the heat transfer!
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