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Old 12-27-20, 07:59 AM   #1
solarhotairpanels
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Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Warwick, Rhode Island
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Default What's better 40 gal of hot water or 3 gal? What's your 2 cents cuz I'm not SOLD yet?

What I'm referring to is those who are building solar hot water collection systems for domestic hot water assist.

Some people build big solar heated tanks then submerge a coil of pex or copper inside to run their domestic hot water thru on route to their faucet/shower. Doing it this way keeps the domestic hot water separate from the solar heated water in the tank and I get that... however how much volume of water do you actually have inside that big coil of pex or copper pipe? 3 to 7 gallons total maybe if you're lucky? Heck you better be taking some super short showers and forget the soap right?

Others use a 'purchased' (new or used) insulated solar preheat tank that contains a coil in the bottom heated by solar collectors which intern heats the 40 gallons of domestic hot water surrounding the coil which is then fed to your hot water heater or tankless hot water heater. Now to me this makes sense and is what I use at my house.

My collectors heat up what I call a 40 gallon domestic hot water preheat tank. When the hot water faucet is turned on that pre heated water (from my collectors) is fed to my tankless domestic hot water heater so that my tankless water heater is not taking in 48 to 50 degree ground water.

I don't understand how doing it the first way running your domestic hot water thru a coil is going to help you much at all unless I'm missing something here?

The EPA estimates that the standard shower heads use 2.5 gallons of water per minute. That's 20 gallons of water for the average shower!

Do you have 20 gallons of water inside those coils that are submerged in your solar collected hot water tank?

Please note that this post pertains only to DIY solar projects pertaining to domestic hot water systems. NOT house heating assistance

PS: I also got my ambition to build my own drainback hot water collection system by researching Gary's Build it Solar website. A wealth of information can be found there for sure, including analizing the amount of water that is actually inside the coil of tubing pex/copper that is submerged in the solar heated storage tank. I'm going back to that website again now to see if I can find those posts again just to refresh my memory.

Your views / comments are encouraged and welcomed to respond to this post.

__________________
Pat from Warwick, RI

Please Note:
Comments and/or suggestions I make here at the forums on 'your' projects as well as my own have all been carefully and scientifically calculated by 'the seat of my pants'
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Last edited by solarhotairpanels; 12-27-20 at 08:30 AM..
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