Need help as I design a solar water heater into my existing heating system

[eastwest523]

My name is Mike and I am currently trying to design a solar water heater into my old farmhouse.
The house is located in upstate NY and this is specifically a weekend home with alot of work that still needs to be done. With oil increasing I am trying to use the solar hot water panels to heat water that will be intended for heating potable water and most important for my baseboard and radiant heating.


The current system is as follows

Oil burning boiler which has 4 baseboard Zones - Copper

[russ]

Please don't make the same post in multiple forums.

The entire setup will be costly, inefficient and difficult to design. Your boiler/radiator system needs recirculated water at a higher temp that is not constantly refreshed with makeup water. Oxygen in those systems enhances corrosion potential.

Solar for radiator temps will only be evacuated tbe type of collectors - they get to higher temps than flat plate type.

You need a good HVAC engineer to design such a mix - match types of system.

[MikeSolar]

Honestly, don't bother with trying to heat the house with solar. Concentrate on Solar water heating for showers.

Simple reason....when do we have the most sun? Summer, 14 hrs of it.
When do we have the least sun? winter, 4-5 hrs if we are lucky.

How much energy is there in the sun in the summer? 1000W+ per m2 of area for maybe 10-12 hrs
How much in the winter? If you are lucky you can get 400-500W per m2 for maybe 4-6 hrs

Even with vacuum tubes, there is not enough energy in the sun to heat your house, especially with baseboard rads.

Concentrate on lowering the heat loss of the building,, then, if there is not natural gas available, look at a heat pump. The fireplace insert is a good idea. I am getting one from the UK that has a "back boiler" in it. I haven't been able to find one over here so i will ship it over.