Concrete block tank?

Alan:

Concrete tankage as I think you describe may not be the best way to go. Lots of practical problems like sealing, access for cleaning and how to insulate to mention a few. You may be better off finding a used tank, taking it to the tank cleaner, putting it on a concrete pad designed for that purpose and insulating the crap out of the tank, or building a super insulated structure around it.

FWIW, I have a air amount of empathy for what you've described so far in your posts. I went down many similar paths as you seem to be travelling only about 35 or 40 years before you. A bit of what's meant as friendly advice: In some kind of loose order: First, reduce your use - turn stuff off. Then, educate yourself about conservation measures that will save energy and money and do those measures that best fit your budget and lifestyle. After that, educate yourself about applied solar technology, including passive, thermal and PV. Enjoy the journey. I have.

Take what you want/need of the above, scrap the rest.

Finding a tank here, is no problem. Maybe even free.

My biggest obstacle is the steepness of my property and trees.

There really is only one location suitable for the array and is is adjacent to that room.

On the other side of that room is a garage, that is rarely used for anything, except cold weather vehicle repairs.

I may have to shove a tank into that, because there is no place outside to put it, that isn't at least 20' away.

BTW, the tank I was describing would only be around 5' deep, with a removable cover.

Alan

From your post, I gathered you were talking about adding 2 walls and using 2 existing adjacent walls as containment vessel. Bad assumption on my part ?

No, your assumption was correct, except the added walls would be partial walls only.

Alan

The first question I ask is what is the heat loss of the area that you are trying to heat during the time of the year when sunshine is adequate to produce the amount of BTU required to heat the area for 1 day.
105K BTU Per day is not a lot of heat generated for space heating. It may be sufficient to heat approxmately 160 gallon of water to a delta T of 50 degrees F. Hardly enough for space heating at all.
Here in NY that would be sufficient for a day when the outdoor ambient is 60 degrees.
If you read some of the older posts you will realize that solar thermal space heating is not a viable option because of the high BTU requirements.
If living in a state such as Florida and you just want to take the chill off on those cool days you may be able to make it work, but there are a lot of less expensive ways of doing that.

I guess I need to provide a little more information about what I am trying to do.

I have wood heat, but am getting to the age that I am going to have to pay someone to cut my wood, (or hopefully just drag long logs to my barn, where I can finish the cutting and splitting myself) because it is getting difficult to do it myself, especially on my steep property.

I want a solar hot water system to generate heat, but don't expect it to do all of it.

There is just my wife and I here, so during really cold spells, will probably never have more than one room at a time heated to 70-72 degrees. Living room during the day and bedroom at night, or drag the mattress to the wood stove.

Have propane for the stove, so could add a propane heater to the kitchen, for the few hours it would be used.

I am starting with 6 trough collectors, that are going to cost about $100-$150 each to build and if needed have the space to add as many collectors as I want or need.

I can also do more to insulate the house, if I need to.

The thing that cannot be expanded so easily later is the tank.

I have a 15 x 19 x 9 garage that I can put a tank in and in my area, cheap, used tanks are pretty easy to come by.

Right now, i just need to know what size tank I should be asking around for.

For this type of thing, is it possible to have a tank that is too large and if not should I just look for the largest one that will fit through the garage door and then insulate it to the max?

Alan

You will need to calculate the amount of BTU'S that you want to store in the tank which corelates to the amount of BTU'S that you can generate per day.
1 BTU required to heat 1 # of water 1 degree F - 8.3 # per gallon.

1 BTU required to heat 1 # of water 1 degree F - 8.3 # per gallon.

I think this is exactly what I have been looking for, but do not understand what the # symbols represent.

Alan

These are the specs given for the system, and I plan to start with 6 and then add as needed-

"Each section can provide approximately 1000 watt-hour (3,500 BTU/hr) of heat."

3,500BTU * 6 collectors * 5 hours = 105,000BTU per (sunny) day.

Another formula told me that I needed 100,000 BTU to keep my 2,000 sqft house raised 50 degrees for 24 hours, which is way more than I need.

If both of these are correct I just need to know how much to store.

Alan

So far I have found a 1000 gallon tank for $800.

How big are these collectors ? Length X Width.

Real SWAG: under clear sky conditions those panels MAY, IF YOU'RE LUCKY, pick up about 1,200-1,500 BTU/day per ft^2 of collector surface under ideal conditions. Probably about something like half that per day as an average, depending on your location.

Depending on your house, size has something to do with it, but other things like insulation, family size, and a bunch of other stuff are also at least as important. If your house is not insulated, do that first - honest.

Another SWAG/back of envelope calc: If your house requires something like 10,000 BTU to get through 1 degree-day, that 105,0000 BTU will provide heat until the ave. outside temp. gets to 55 deg. F., or so.

I'm not raining on your parade, or trying to act like a know it all, and it's a free country, but dude - read a book. The questions and comments I've seen so far lead me to believe you're out of your element at this time .

I'm on your side. Honest. Read my prior posts on this thread.

IMO only, so far your cart with your goals in it is way in front of the information horse. Take a deep breath, learn something about energy conservation and the basics of solar energy. You will learn a lot that will help you make more intelligent choices and put your situation into perspective. You'll probably save a lot of money as well and perhaps wind up with a better situation.

Take what you need of the above. Scrap the rest.

Surely someone out there has done something similar and tell me what size tank I need to find, because that is all I am asking.

This old man is having a hard time understanding what this site is supposed to be for.

If I had read some book, why would I need to come here and ask questions?

All I know is that the way our government is being run, I need to be preparing for a "you're on your on" situation, right now.

As long as I can cobble together a system that keep us from freezing to death I will be happy.

Some of you young people have never had to "get by with what you had", so have this idea that knowledge is the answer to everything and are soon in for a very rude awakening.

I don't think I have a year to study some textbook, plus learn the current generations lingo (i.e., what is SWAG?), so I can understand what the hell they are trying to say.

If you don't like me asking my questions, then don't read them.

I'm looking for practical experience, from someone who has a similar situation and I'm not sure that living in San Diego and having a lot of book knowledge qualifies anyway.

Alan

Alan:

As I wrote, take what you need, leave the rest.

I try to learn from the mistakes of others. I've probably made most of the ones you seem to be headed for.

BTW: Most of my thermal experience as it relates to conservation and solar energy was acquired in Buffalo, NY starting in the mid '70's. I moved to San Diego in 1995. Also, FWIW, I'm probably older than you (well past 65).

Some folks come here to ask questions they can't find answers to on their own. I apologize if I confused you for one of those folks.

I hope it all works out for you. Have a nice life. No hard feelings.

J.P.M.

I always thought I was using a WAG and all this time because of my science and engineering background it was really a SWAG.

In my younger days I had earned the nickname SAK but as I got older they changed it to SA.