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Old 11-10-11, 02:04 PM   #31
bennelson
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Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: SE Wisconsin
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Creeky, my wife would require that you pay the groan fee and put $2 in the pun jar!

Actually, the solar collector rack is pretty level, three of the four posts are nearly perfectly plumb (the front left one is off by a bit, but not too bad.)

The horizontal wooden rectangular frame for the solar panel was never square. Looking at it, whoever built it did NOT use the exact same length wood for the two long parts. I really didn't want to rebuilt that thing, especially with the custom aluminum brackets already on there. Instead, I simply measured cross-corners with a tape measure. It's as square as you can make a trapezoid.

Today, I swapped out the couple of bolt that were in there, but not quite the right size or length, for the "correct" bolts. I used galvanized dipped bolts, nuts, and washers. I would have liked to use stainless, but I still have to pay for groceries this week...

With the right bolts in there, and tightened down with my cordless impact, the entire collector setup felt much more rigid.

I also insulated the inside of the PVC pipe. Current weather is 36 degrees F and snowing. How it snows when it's not even below 32, I don't know. Must be colder 100 feet higher in the sky.

Anyways, it's cold outside. The pipe cap on the outside of the PVC pipe seems to fit pretty snug, I don't think I am getting any draft through there. I took the pipe cap off, then rolled up some egg-crate foam and stuffed it in there. (Something similar to mattress pad foam) I now have a solid plug of foam a good foot long shoved in there.

I then put the cap back on. It should be pretty well insulated now.

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diy, domestic, heat exchanger, hot water, solar

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