Pics of 2 DIY systems being built / Hot Air Collectors and Drainback System

[skyking]

The future shop will get them. It has 4 hours of morning sun where it will sit...go figure.

[solarhotairpanels]

Sky...

at my house here.. my collectors get real good sun from 8:30 am to around 12 noon then shut off / on / off / on while the sun passes by the large oak tree limbs in my neighbor's yard.

After the sun passes by the tree they'll cycle on/off for another hour or so.. but that's it.

and they're facing directly South hanging on the side of my house.

Thing I keep telling myself and others is that 'anything' you do/build to help save you some money on heating costs and help keep the planet 'green' is better then doing 'nothing' at all.

I'm very happy with the few hours I get because the collectors are pumping nice warm air into my house during those hours.

after that.. they're just house ornaments.

[solarhotairpanels]

My hot air collectors and solar hot water drainback system have been up and running for 7 years now... no problems. No repairs had to be made.

All aheady FULL!

[solarhotairpanels]

Both hot air collectors are operating perfectly for many years now..
I will be changing the poly to new poly soon. It gets faded over time.

[solarhotairpanels]

Originally Posted by SimpleManLance

I just checked out both your systems. very cool! On your drain back system, don't you need some sort of a vacuum break to get the water to drain back into the 6 gallon tank?

To answer your question YES...

Even though the water being pumped up to the collectors was returning to my drainback tank in the basement I added a T fitting and ball valve to the pipe entering the small drainback tank up on top. I then opened the ball valve just a crack to allow air to enter while water was draining back into the tank. By doing that the returning water returned much faster then without the ball valve air opening.

I also went up on the roof and installed a vacum break type valve at the highest point where hot water leaves collectors on route back to drain back tank. This valve allows a pinch of air into piping as water flows by but will not allow water to leak out. Just perfect for the application.

any other questions just let me know.
I love talking about all this solar stuff.

Thanks!

[skyking]

Pat, well done. I really appreciate you coming back with the reports.
We are still in the house in the woods with too much shade, but now I am approaching retirement and looking to build our last house.
It will have good sun as a requirement!
Picture a rambler with a roofed porch all the way around the south west east, on a south facing slope with an unfinished basement. Your lovely air collectors will be under that porch out of the weather but totally in the winter sun.
Also picture a metal roof, and a chase built in for the water piping from the roof to basement, and a basement just for tinkering with tanks and the like.

[solarhotairpanels]

Sounds like you'll have a beautiful house when done.

Good luck with that project... post a bunch of pictures when you get rolling.

[skyking]

thank you I will.

[solarhotairpanels]

Originally Posted by jeff5may

Both links lead to 404 errors.

EDIT: Now it works. The hot air collector looks like it would work really well on a trailer or home with a package unit heater. It would tie right in.

Jeff, I have to tell ya... I think a couple of these would heat an entire 50 to 60 ft mobile home on a sunny day of course.

I love this last build design..
I'm forcing the inbound air to move horizontally before exiting into the house using the baffles. It seems to heat the air much hotter then with the vertical baffle designs I first built.

Thanks for chiming in!

[solarhotairpanels]

Originally Posted by AC_Hacker

Thanks for the PDFs. I think it's more useful to readers of your work if the discussion happened in the open, so that everyone learned from the questions & responses, rather that just individuals.

Having said that, have you had your metal-stud hot air collectors in operation long enough to know how they stand up to the wind and weather?

-AC

Yes I've had them up for years now.. no issues what so ever other then it's TIME to change the polycarbonate sheathing. They still allow sun to heat the collectors but they've deteriated over time, kind of cloudy looking now. I'll install new poly soon but they still kick butt every day the sun is out.

The galvanized 2 x 4 commercial stud frame looks exactly the way it did when I first put them together.. no signs of rust anywhere at all.
I haven't even had to open them up and repaint the black absorber plate. Still looks good.

The ripple insulation made for rippled wavy polycarbonate sold at Lowe's and Home depot is starting to break up a bit so I'll replace that when I install new sheathing. but again.. that's about it. thanks for checking in with your question.