Sandy's Solar
Water Heating System On Prince Edward Island
Sandy has built a very nice
$1K style solar water heating system for his home on Prince Edward
Island, Canada. The new solar water heater is part of his program
to reduce energy use that also includes a much more efficient space
heating boiler, home insulation, more efficient appliances, and a Prius
-- quite a program!
Sandy has done a very nice job on the system, and has carefully
documented it as well.
If you have any comments or questions, use the Comments section at
bottom of page.
Thanks very much to Sandy for taking
the time to document the system!
Some Highlights -- see the pdfs
above for full details
The collectors use an unusual
horizontal "riser" arrangement, which worked out better for the wide, but not to
tall space available.
The collectors are mounted to the
house wall using heavy duty hook eyes to support the collectors and braces from
the bottom of the collector back to the house to maintain the desired tilt angle
-- a nice arrangement that does not put too many holes in the wall.
The absorber half inch copper pipe grids
for the two collectors.
The collectors going in.
The tank generally follows the design
of the $1K, system but is unique in that the heat exchanger uses a long coil of
3/4 inch PEX pipe that is wrapped on a form to improve the heat transfer between
the PEX and the tank hot water. While winding the heat exchanger pipe coil
on a form to provide more spacing between the coils does involve some time, it
undoubtedly improves the heat transfer efficiency.
The very nice looking heat storage tank.
Winding the PEX heat exchanger coil for
better heat transfer efficiency.
The other unique feature of the tank
is that it has been finished in such a way as to look quite nice. So, if
you are putting your tank in an area where it has to look nice, you can
get some ideas form Sandy's tank.
While Sandy is still working to clear
up some partial shading problems the system is performing well.
