Hello Solar enthusiasts,
I am looking for guidance in designing a solar water heating system, for domestic hot water and house heating.
My details are: I'm about 100 miles north of San Francisco, one mile from the coast and just outside of most of the fog, mostly sunny but still cool. I have a good size grid tie PV system that I installed in 2001 and supplies pretty much all my electricity needs for a good size mostly all electric house.
What I want to do, is produce hot water for (1) take most all the load off my electric water heater, and (2) provide heat for my house, which will be pumped into the lower story of the house, to be absorbed into a large mass of concrete. I am doing this now on a smaller scale with hot air pumped to the lower level and it works quite well, but I would like to expand this.
I am a retired General Engineering Contractor, with the tools and ability to successfully undertake a project like this, I just am having a hard time finding the information and help I need to design the system.
I have some of the components, but will need to purchase much of the needed parts. What I have is 8 3x7 Grumman copper tube type collectors, and a variety of pumps, that may or not be suitable for this project. My current water heater and pressure tank are ready for replacement and repositioning so most everything with the exception of the panels will be new. The panels are in nice condition, pressure tested for 24 hours, yesterday I did a heat test at about solar noon, I measured an output from one panel, of one liter of water, heated 45 degrees in 45 seconds. The water in the panels also got up to about 210 degrees when left still for a little while.
The site for the panels is about 75 feet away and 8 feet above where the water/ storage tank will be.
I want to build a system that is both robust and uses as little electricity as possible, as I am hoping to use the electricity saved by heating water, to run a heat pump for house heat, so someday I can stop burning firewood as my main cold weather heat source.
Some of my questions are:
How do I figure what pump capacity I need an what type.
What are my options for controllers and pump stations.
Do I want a prepackaged pump station or individual components for a system like this.
And many more.
Thanks in advance.
I am looking for guidance in designing a solar water heating system, for domestic hot water and house heating.
My details are: I'm about 100 miles north of San Francisco, one mile from the coast and just outside of most of the fog, mostly sunny but still cool. I have a good size grid tie PV system that I installed in 2001 and supplies pretty much all my electricity needs for a good size mostly all electric house.
What I want to do, is produce hot water for (1) take most all the load off my electric water heater, and (2) provide heat for my house, which will be pumped into the lower story of the house, to be absorbed into a large mass of concrete. I am doing this now on a smaller scale with hot air pumped to the lower level and it works quite well, but I would like to expand this.
I am a retired General Engineering Contractor, with the tools and ability to successfully undertake a project like this, I just am having a hard time finding the information and help I need to design the system.
I have some of the components, but will need to purchase much of the needed parts. What I have is 8 3x7 Grumman copper tube type collectors, and a variety of pumps, that may or not be suitable for this project. My current water heater and pressure tank are ready for replacement and repositioning so most everything with the exception of the panels will be new. The panels are in nice condition, pressure tested for 24 hours, yesterday I did a heat test at about solar noon, I measured an output from one panel, of one liter of water, heated 45 degrees in 45 seconds. The water in the panels also got up to about 210 degrees when left still for a little while.
The site for the panels is about 75 feet away and 8 feet above where the water/ storage tank will be.
I want to build a system that is both robust and uses as little electricity as possible, as I am hoping to use the electricity saved by heating water, to run a heat pump for house heat, so someday I can stop burning firewood as my main cold weather heat source.
Some of my questions are:
How do I figure what pump capacity I need an what type.
What are my options for controllers and pump stations.
Do I want a prepackaged pump station or individual components for a system like this.
And many more.
Thanks in advance.
Comment