Solar space heating for shop

[waterdigger2]

I am building one of these for my house. But instead of using copper . I am doing mine with an air space heatin.

[randen]

Here it is, a new year and the Canadian is dragging his feet on the project. Jan 09 is a sunny cold day with an expected high of -6 Deg. C. Mikesolar was curious if any activity had occurred. Not. Except for a few risers nothing has been done.

Again the day is sunny and the house is getting the free heat for the day. Only if the shop could make the same claim. Other little odd time-consuming jobs are being knocked off.

Something cool happened this morning. I apologise for not getting a photo, the eco-renovators may be able to mentally picture this. Yesterday, full sun heated the house as well as the garage. As a daily occurence my wife parked her car in the garage last evening. She had expressed her like to have a warm car in the morning and I find that a floor temp of 21 Deg. C. room temp. 16 Deg. C. is warm enough.

With this floor temperature the accumulated ice and snow melts over nite and the car and garage floor is dry in the morning when she leaves.

Upon opening the garage door this morning with the outside air temp -16 Deg. C. a plume of warm moisture laden air condensed and made a cloud of vapour.
She was amazed as the car emerged from the sauna. I believe she now agrees the garage is warm enough.

I like that its a fine display of solar heating.:thumbup

Randen

[randen]

A little light production is made. The copper risers for the solar collector. It is a mundane task and its going to take some time. I've about 90 pcs to make. You guys probably know what I mean. Those jobs when you just need to go though the motions with your mind shut off. One after another till one day, Hey I've got them all finished, On to the next step.

The copper tube was recycled from the old oil furnace that was removed from the shop and I believe some more was donated. The copper fin material was purchased for the collector I had made for the house. Believe it or not it was cheaper to make a minimum order for the slit copper and scrap what I didn't use than buy the quantity I required only.

Still a little cold and snowy for out-side work anyway. Its a little disappointing too that we haven't seen a lot of sun this season. Its been very cold lots of snow and more cloud than one can stand.

Randen

[randen]

A nice sunny day in Ontario -7 Deg. C Some serious work is progressing on the solar hot water panel for the shop. These jobs of tedium seem to take forever and one must be in the right frame of mind.

The risers are being silphos brazed to the upper and lower manifold tubes. Not difficult just need the steady hand. After this panel is brazed we will place it outside on a nice day and give it a coat of flat-black selective coating. Then we'll put in place and start again on the next section. These things are large and take up a lot of room.

The all important pressure test is now being made We'll confirm tomorrow if all is well. To skip this test would result in a possible leak when the panel is all assembled resulting in disassembly and a few choice words.

In one of my builds a pressure test was made however in some part of assembly a cold joint was opened and a world of pain was made. Removal of the glass and re brazing trying not to start the foam insulation a blaze.

This section will be one of 4 assemblies adding up to about 300 sq.ft. of collector

Randen

[randen]

A nice day here in Ontario. The temp rose to 2 Deg C. perfect for a selective coating for the copper risers. In the direct sunlight out of the wind proved ideal for the job. The coating dried quickly and allowed us to hoist it into position allowing more room for the next section to be manufactured next.

The sun-tuff glazing is under 3 ft. of snow. It may be a few weeks before any can be installed over the collector.


Randen

[Mikesolar]

Cover it so the elements don't bugger up your coating

[nokiasixteth]

Project seems to be comin along nice.

[pletby]

Hi Randen, how did this project turn out?

[randen]

Pletby

This project for the time has taken a back seat to some other projects. However from time to time some pieces do get soldered into place. Last week I had some time to rout the piping inside to the air handler.
The 5T DIY geothermal shop heating is working extremely well and keeping the cost of heating the shop to meir pennies by comparison to furnace oil heating. So the urgency to have this up and running is not there.
The solar resources here for the last two years had been disappointing. Very little sun a lot of overcast skies.

Randen

[Jakeson]

Originally Posted by randen

Here in Ontario Canada fall weather is beginning. Nice weather for working outside. For fellow Eco-renovator that have been following and remember 2 yrs. ago I had built and installed a homemade Ground source heat-pump under the tutelage of AC Hackers Manifesto in the shop.

Hello, What is the "AC Hackers Manifesto" ? I can not find any reference to this.