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Summer/Winter Mode for my solar HW system

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  • Summer/Winter Mode for my solar HW system

    Have kind of a different solar heating scenario. I have had a 6 Panel solar heat setup for the last 6 years that has work well providing hot water and some heat, but I want to reconfigure it for a change in our situation. We now go South for the winter( the solar panels are in the house in the Boston area)

    So I have set the system up for summer mode to provide domestic hot water with the electric water heat back up. Previously it had been a pre-feed to my water heater that was run off the oil fired boiler.
    It works great, now I can turn off the boiler and get 90% of the water heated from the solar side. (electric only kicks on, on the third no sun day)

    So that leave me with Winter Mode. Heat only.
    Background the heating system is force hot water with both Baseboards and radiant. The house is reasonably insulated built in the 80's with retro isocyene in the attic.

    During the winter all the thermostats are set to 50 deg and I will be turning of the domestic hot water.
    So what I would like to do is send the solar heat when available in to the main radiant zone of the house. Essentially overriding the thermostat when the water the solar storage tanks is above lets 100 deg.

    I have a heat exchanger and pump for the solar side.

    So where do I put the other side of the heat exchanger.

    In series with the output of the boiler hot water before the radiant mixing valve? see picture.
    In parallel with some one way valves?

    Sorry for the 3rd graders drawing but this my current thinking.
    When the temp in the tank gets above 100 deg I would turn on the solar pump and the zone pump.
    When the zone thermo calls for heat I would turn on zone pump as normal and enable the boiler to heat up.

    Ideas thoughts appreciated in advance.
    heat diagram.jpg

  • #2
    boiler - series

    I would put the exchanger up stream from the boiler.

    You're not there and your thermostats are low. You're using your boiler to heat the house. And you don't need hot water. Might as well shave some cost off heating the house while you're not there.

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