Do you use any solar heat or hot water devices in your home or shop?

I am just wondering because it seems that some solutions for DIY may be useful in the future, with energy and food shortages on the rise.

Living in the 45 deg. north climate there was a need to look at these types of devices and do some testing.

If there is an interest, I have working solar heat panels, one of which needs to be repaired, it is a good opportunity to take some pics of the ordeal so others can see the inner workings of these gems.

A short description is as follows...

4 x 8 solar heat panels, they are now configured for convection however when they were originally purchased they had energy "pig" fans blowing the warm air into the ductwork.

The panels were incorrectly placed on the roof horizontal, with the face pointing up at a much too high angle, they were in the solar arc in the summer !

Currently they are mounted on the south facing wall vertical with only a slight angle.

The panels have 2 vent tubes, 8" one on the bottom one on the top, the bottom is connected to an insulated tube which runs to a "cold air return" register on the floor of the room where the panel is mounted.

There is no need for fans, these work very well with convection and only work well in the winter when the solar arc is low in the sky, yes they do need to be plugged when there is no sun, but hey, it is free heat so I can deal with vents for now

There is one more interesting thing about these panels - they came with frosted glass (the kind you put in bathroom windows) and without the glass installed they get much hotter and produce more heat than with the glass.

So if anyone is interested I can post some pics of the repairs and continue this thread.

I would like to see some pics....I don't have much need for the heated air down here, but I have seen these as Pre-Water Heater Devices. Im sure the principle is the same.

I was thinking of this to put Hot-Water in my shop instead of running a separate
Hot Water Line....

That would be great to see pics of the progress with that.

I plan to put a solar heated water system on my house. I'm going to use the glass evacuated tubes...little more spendy but I want it to be very sellable with the whole home. Originally, I wanted the hot water to supply heat to radiant heat tubing under my floors but not sure I'll do that now but I might at least put it under the bathroom floor and kitchen since the floor is easy to get to in the basement and is right over the water heater area.

It seems the price is coming down on those tube collectors and I really like the concept. If I had a place that I didn't plan on selling anytime in the next couple years out in the boonies or something, I'd make my own collectors and wouldn't care what it looked like.

What do you think the possibilities are of having one of these systems produce steam to power a turbine that supplies electricity?

Guys i just got sent this in the Panacea emails.

Name: Alan Byde
Country: New Zealand
Email: alanbyde@callsouth.net.nz
Website: None
Message: 22/06/2008. Alan Byde

If this is useful to your organisation, please use it gratis.

Beasley 315 ‘Centurion’ solar water heating system installed May 2006. DIY. Two panels each 2 sq m. First panel receives cool water, second panel receives warmed water therefore less condensation in second panel.

Condensation in winter 2007. Silvery sheen reflected energy, efficiency reduced. Cleared early afternoon. Algae in frame edges. Expel water in panel. How?

Realised panels are air pumps, air out when heated, damp night air in when cooled. Water gathers in insulation. Approx 4 litres air moved from 0C to 100C
Warm dry air under roof. Sealed four vent holes in base plate of first panel.
Drilled half inch hole in lower frame. Small (coffee cup?) amount of water emerged. Took half inch plastic pipe from hole in frame to air in roof space. The first panel now expels air in to roof space and takes in less damp air from roof space. A few weeks ago condensation was showing on cold mornings, another winter like the last? Then the circulating pump failed, installation fault. (My fault, I pay for my education) Cold to freezing at night, I drained panels to prevent frost damage. Almost a week passed until new pump was installed.

The sun shone very well those afternoons and the empty panels hit high temperatures, the thermal ballasting effect of water circulating in the collector plate was absent. Unwanted water boiled off.

About four weeks ago the system was reconnected and works well. There is some condensation early morning after cold night but very little. I am hopeful that the condensation problem has been corrected. Algae has gone. Electrolytic degradation of metals halted?

Suggestions.

Applies only to first panel in sequence of two or more.

Seal base plate holes, allow panel to breathe only through a 15mm pipe with free end under roof.

An improvement would be to take the free end of the pipe into a flexible sealed bag capacity 4 litres +/-

To remove unwanted water after re-organising breathing hole, drain panel and leave drained for a week of hot afternoon sun to boil off the condensation.

Perhaps this is a little off topic but I chatted with a friend today and he was telling me about a water heater he has. Its very basic, just copper pipe spiraling around his chimney up to a small catchment/storage area. He can have a quick hot shower for 5 pieces of newspaper he reckons! If the fire is going heat the room and pump 90 percent of its heat straight out the chimney may as well heat some water on the way out!

I told him that spiral needs to be bifilar and pulsed

Interesting and simple technique however.

I install solar systems for a living. I am very up to speed on evacuated tubes, schuco, stiebel eltron, and viessman solar panels. I also do a ton of radiant and geo-exchange projects.
When you are heating domestic water there is nothing that can beet a drain back sytem. It is the most effiecient!!! always try and avoid glycol. Storage is very important, the more the better.
I am only familiar with my climate, (320 days of sun shine, and 0 degree design tempatures) we have cold winters and warm summers. If I want to impact the heating in the winter I will need a big array and then in the summer I have to dump that extra heat somewhere or run the system in reverse as to never excede max btu's during the day. Evacuated tubes can't cool water down at night, so you have to dump the heat or have the proper storage. With drain back you will eliminate many of these problems, maximizing effiency, bringing cost down and keeping controls to a minumum. If someone tells you different they are selling you somthing.

Well I had a slight disaster when removing the collector sheet.

I bumped into-tripped over the dish uplink and killed my high speed inet

so it took awhile to have the time to send these pics using dialup.

but here they are...

The collector sheet is aluminum anodized and has this convex pattern.

there is the top vent that goes into the house.

there is a pic of the damaged sides that I need to seal up.

and the type of insulboard that they used to make the unit, fiberized foam foil-backed.

Attached Images

	collect.jpg (42.7 KB, 5 views)
	topvent-spacer.jpg (46.6 KB, 5 views)
	damage.jpg (68.1 KB, 5 views)
	insulboard.jpg (42.7 KB, 5 views)