A Double-Duty Solar Solution: How to Build a Solar Water Heater
Selected by Rael
The Raelian Movement
for those who are not afraid of the future : http://www.rael.org
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A Double-Duty Solar Solution: How to Build a Solar Water Heater
You can build your own space and solar water heater for just a fraction of
what you would pay for a commercial solar water heating system.
February/March 2012
This simple solar water heater provides both domestic hot water and space
heating. You can adjust the size and design to meet the needs of your home.
You'll find nearly all the materials at your local hardware or lumber store,
and to build it, you need only basic carpentry skills and a little plumbing
know-how. Amazingly, the cost of this DIY system is only about one-eighth of
what you would pay for an equivalent commercial system!
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How It Works
The system takes water from near the bottom of a solar heat storage tank and
pumps it through a collector - where it's heated by the sun - and then back
to the tank. This continues as long as there's sun on the collector. An
off-the-shelf controller monitors the temperatures of the collector and the
tank, and it turns the pump on only if the collector is hotter than the
tank. When the pump is off, water drains from the collector back to the
tank. This type of "drainback" system is especially useful in cold climates
because it keeps the water from freezing inside the collectors.
Water is preheated in a single pass through a large coil of PEX pipe
immersed in the solar storage tank. The preheated water then goes to your
regular hot water tank. This simple one-pass system works well because the
PEX pipe coil is large enough to hold quite a bit of preheated water right
in the coil, and it has so much surface area that it acts as a good heat
exchanger after the initial hot water from the coil has been exhausted. The
water in the tank is used strictly to store heat - it is not part of the
potable water system.
The floor heating system pumps water from near the top of the tank through
the radiant floor loops, and then back to the bottom of the tank. The
control system monitors the room temperature and the tank temperature, and
it turns the pump on only if the room is cold and the tank is hot. The
control system is made from two standard thermostats.
A key feature of this design is that the storage tank is non-pressurized.
This gives you a lot of storage volume at a low cost and also eliminates the
need for a separate drainback tank and heat exchanger.
My aim with this solar water and space heater was to create a design that
would be simple, low-cost, long-lived, reliable, low-maintenance, and as
easy to build as possible. Over the past five years, the design has
progressed through several versions with a lot of feedback from early
builders, and I think that together, we've made good progress toward these
goals. I hope you'll find it a fun and rewarding project.
Read more:
http://www.motherearthnews.com/do-it-yourself/solar-water-heater-zm0z12fmzph
e.aspx#ixzz1lOpgXqOe
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