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Costom DIY Closed Loop System

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  • Costom DIY Closed Loop System

    I'm just starting out on my Solar Journey.
    New Solar Plan.gif I attached my preliminary plan, don't laugh, I trying.
    I live in Charleston S.C. and a lot of the info on line is more about northern climates. I have very hard water so I'm doing a closed loop system. I have a new Geothermal system to install and decided that I was going to put solar with gas water heater as supplemental heat and back up if there is a problem with the Geo.. I'm willing to spend extra money to get away from commercial electric and will be using PV for pumps and controls. I think that I will actually end up using the solar as my main heating and the geothermal for cooling. I'm starting off with a main need for heat in my house. I have the water to air heat exchanger part done, My gas water heater will also be heat storage ( 30 or 40 Gallon ). I have a secondary homemade 30 gallon tank with a coil in it for heat storage and will use it for heat dump to keep from overheating the standard gas water heater. I'll be running hard copper from the collectors to the overheat dump exchanger, control the water temperature there so as to not overheat the water heater and be able to use the Pex for the rest of the system. I have coldish well water, 5 people including 2 women living in the house and plan to preheat the water heater supply with the coil I have in my secondary storage tank. for next winter I will be constructing a large homemade heat storage tank and will be asking for advice on that later. My plan is to have the heated water from the collectors go thru the gas water heater then to the heat exchanger that heats the house then back to the secondary storage tank to scavenge heat before retuning to the collectors then at night when the collectors are cold drop them out of the system. Any advice, concerns, thoughts ?

  • #2
    Originally posted by Wandosam View Post
    I'm just starting out on my Solar Journey.
    [ATTACH=CONFIG]5038[/ATTACH] I attached my preliminary plan, don't laugh, I trying.
    I live in Charleston S.C. and a lot of the info on line is more about northern climates. I have very hard water so I'm doing a closed loop system. I have a new Geothermal system to install and decided that I was going to put solar with gas water heater as supplemental heat and back up if there is a problem with the Geo.. I'm willing to spend extra money to get away from commercial electric and will be using PV for pumps and controls. I think that I will actually end up using the solar as my main heating and the geothermal for cooling. I'm starting off with a main need for heat in my house. I have the water to air heat exchanger part done, My gas water heater will also be heat storage ( 30 or 40 Gallon ). I have a secondary homemade 30 gallon tank with a coil in it for heat storage and will use it for heat dump to keep from overheating the standard gas water heater. I'll be running hard copper from the collectors to the overheat dump exchanger, control the water temperature there so as to not overheat the water heater and be able to use the Pex for the rest of the system. I have coldish well water, 5 people including 2 women living in the house and plan to preheat the water heater supply with the coil I have in my secondary storage tank. for next winter I will be constructing a large homemade heat storage tank and will be asking for advice on that later. My plan is to have the heated water from the collectors go thru the gas water heater then to the heat exchanger that heats the house then back to the secondary storage tank to scavenge heat before retuning to the collectors then at night when the collectors are cold drop them out of the system. Any advice, concerns, thoughts ?
    Geothermal systems have an optional desuperheater available. The desuperheater would give you most of the hot water that you would need when the Geo is operating.
    A 50 - 80 gal water heater would be more appropriate in your situation.
    When you research the desuperheater you will come up with a completely new plan.

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    • #3
      Thank you LucMan ! ! My biggest question is more about if it will be a good idea to run the heated water from the collectors to the gas water heater then to the storage tank, ( savaging, and getting a greater heat transfer, then drop the collectors out ( seems like a bad idea to circulate heated water thru cold collectors at night ) and reverse the flow so that the air handler is pulling from the hotter tank, sorry if I'm not clear. I have the Geo. unit, 3.5 ton, never heard of a desuperheater before today, doesn't have one, looks like a great idea, Love the advise/info ! I will have to see if I can add it. The Gas water heater is only for back up heat if the Solar doesn't keep up. Not a big deal to me if it runs a bit hard this winter and a lot less when i upgrade to a much larger storage tank next year. I have limited space ( height ) my thought is that I will have a total of 60 - 70 gallons of storage capacity, don't need a lot of heating here in Charleston, only heating 1100 sq ft, 1/2 half of my house, has great insulation R 19 in the walls. Good heat in other half. I should have taken more time and given more info. I'm working from the idea that I'm supplying the capacity of the 3.5 ton unit as a basis. I'm planning to install 3, 5 X 8 panels, homemade, start by building two, have room for four, see how the two perform. I a bit of a nutcase, love building things.

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      • #4
        The desuperheater may supply you with all the HW you need in SC. The solar HW systems are usually used as preheaters, the solar WH would have the cold water line connected to it first. The backup water heater would be connected in series with the solar, the hot from the solar tank would be connected to the cold inlet on the backup WH.

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