Need a serious capacity Storage Tank for solar hot water ?

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TheyCallMeDave
Posts: 45
Joined: Fri May 29, 2009 6:37 pm
Location: Northern Florida

P.S. Im at Starbucks right now, so, ill swing into Farmers Supply. Thanks.
TheyCallMeDave
Posts: 45
Joined: Fri May 29, 2009 6:37 pm
Location: Northern Florida

TheyCallMeDave wrote:P.S. Im at Starbucks right now, so, ill swing into Farmers Supply. Thanks.


I went there, and saw a horizontal 96 gallon white steel Storage Tank that looks good, for $349. Has two 2" threaded bungs on the top. Would work out good burying it under my Mobile, directly under my current Water Heater.
TheyCallMeDave
Posts: 45
Joined: Fri May 29, 2009 6:37 pm
Location: Northern Florida

What do you think of think of this compact low cost alternative for space heating of my 15x24' Living Room using Solar hot water ? :

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/SUM-991105/
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flcruising
Posts: 606
Joined: Mon Dec 03, 2007 2:18 pm
Location: Florida Panhandle

Looks promising, but it is very small. About 9-1/2" x 6-1/2".
[color=blue]Aaron[/color]
TheyCallMeDave
Posts: 45
Joined: Fri May 29, 2009 6:37 pm
Location: Northern Florida

flcruising wrote:Looks promising, but it is very small. About 9-1/2" x 6-1/2".
True..its very small, BUT its big on capacity : 28,000 btus (probably measured at 190 f water temp)...but even so...at 160 f. water temp, it should be enough to warm a 15x24' room that has an insulated drop ceiling, from 5 - 10 pm wouldnt you think ? If it doesnt , then ill get one for the bedroom too and be able to really put a dent in the winter electric bill.
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flcruising
Posts: 606
Joined: Mon Dec 03, 2007 2:18 pm
Location: Florida Panhandle

True. Being that it designed for a car's relatively low flow water pump, it wouldn't require much of an electric pump to circulate through it. And you could hook it up with heater hose too. Sounds simple enough to me. You might be on to something.
[color=blue]Aaron[/color]
TheyCallMeDave
Posts: 45
Joined: Fri May 29, 2009 6:37 pm
Location: Northern Florida

flcruising wrote:True. Being that it designed for a car's relatively low flow water pump, it wouldn't require much of an electric pump to circulate through it. And you could hook it up with heater hose too. Sounds simple enough to me. You might be on to something.
I guess id have to get a small 115-12 vdc Converter for each Blower/heater Unit ., in addition to a space thermostat ; but its all very exciting to me .

Im expecting GREAT results from using Solar heated water for potable and space heating since last night I took a full 5 minute shower using the COLD water only ! It was actually quite warm from all the excessive heat we've had lately.
Gary Gary
Posts: 16
Joined: Mon Mar 12, 2007 9:07 am
Location: Bozeman, MT
Contact:

Hi,
If you want to get both space heating and domestic water heating from solar, and you live in a cold climate, it takes a lot of collector area. Most solar domestic water heating systems do quite well in the summer, but don't meet the full domestic hot water needs in the winter, let along providing extra hot water for space heating.

Just to give an idea, I have a solar space heating system with 240 sqft of collector -- it provides the equivalent of 330 gallons of propane a year. The system will get the 400 gallon tank up to 160F or so in the spring and fall, but very rarely gets that hot in mid winter. On a sunny mid-winter day, it will get up to 130F or so during the day, and then the house heating takes it down to about 85F that night. I use a hydronic floor to distribute the heat to the house.

You might find the tanks and some of the other stuff in my systems helpful -- the tanks are highly insulated, EPDM lined plywood boxes. Cheap to build and have a good track record for life -- this design goes back to the 80's. The EPDM is good up to about 180F, but will have a longer life at 170F. Bear in mind that the insulation for tanks is also expensive -- on my tanks its the most expensive part of the tank -- so you want to consider how you are going to insulate when you are thinking about tanks. Some tank ideas here:
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Sp ... tm#Storage

The space heating system:
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Sp ... arshed.htm

The domestic water heating system:
http://www.builditsolar.com/Experimenta ... erview.htm

There is no reason that the domestic water heating system could not be scaled up in collector size and tank size to take on some space heating. The system uses a non-pressurized storage tank to store heat in plain water, and a 300 ft coil of 1 inch PEX immersed in the tank to preheat domestic water. The PEX coil is an essentially 100% efficient heat exchanger, because it holds 12 gallons of water that is always preheated to full tank temperature. For the space heating part, you could pump water directly from the same non-pressurized tank through your space heater.

Many more solar space heating ideas here:
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Sp ... eating.htm

You might also consider air heating solar collectors -- much simpler and easier to build -- and no green puddles when they leak.
Most homes can take quite a bit of air collector area just using the thermal mass of the home to store heat.

Gary
TheyCallMeDave
Posts: 45
Joined: Fri May 29, 2009 6:37 pm
Location: Northern Florida

Gary Gary wrote:Hi,
If you want to get both space heating and domestic water heating from solar, and you live in a cold climate, it takes a lot of collector area. Most solar domestic water heating systems do quite well in the summer, but don't meet the full domestic hot water needs in the winter, let along providing extra hot water for space heating.

Just to give an idea, I have a solar space heating system with 240 sqft of collector -- it provides the equivalent of 330 gallons of propane a year. The system will get the 400 gallon tank up to 160F or so in the spring and fall, but very rarely gets that hot in mid winter. On a sunny mid-winter day, it will get up to 130F or so during the day, and then the house heating takes it down to about 85F that night. I use a hydronic floor to distribute the heat to the house.

You might find the tanks and some of the other stuff in my systems helpful -- the tanks are highly insulated, EPDM lined plywood boxes. Cheap to build and have a good track record for life -- this design goes back to the 80's. The EPDM is good up to about 180F, but will have a longer life at 170F. Bear in mind that the insulation for tanks is also expensive -- on my tanks its the most expensive part of the tank -- so you want to consider how you are going to insulate when you are thinking about tanks. Some tank ideas here:
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Sp ... tm#Storage

The space heating system:
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Sp ... arshed.htm

The domestic water heating system:
http://www.builditsolar.com/Experimenta ... erview.htm

There is no reason that the domestic water heating system could not be scaled up in collector size and tank size to take on some space heating. The system uses a non-pressurized storage tank to store heat in plain water, and a 300 ft coil of 1 inch PEX immersed in the tank to preheat domestic water. The PEX coil is an essentially 100% efficient heat exchanger, because it holds 12 gallons of water that is always preheated to full tank temperature. For the space heating part, you could pump water directly from the same non-pressurized tank through your space heater.

Many more solar space heating ideas here:
http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Sp ... eating.htm

You might also consider air heating solar collectors -- much simpler and easier to build -- and no green puddles when they leak.
Most homes can take quite a bit of air collector area just using the thermal mass of the home to store heat.

Gary
Thanks Gary for the sites/ Forunately for me, im in northern Florida where the average winter temp. during the day is 60-70 f. and a good amount of full sun . At night, the average low temp. is 40 f. so I dont have to mess with glycol ...and if it does dip below freezing, i can simply fun the Solar pump overnight continuously. For the best efficiency, im going with the same open system for both domestic hot water and space hot water needs. Ill simply tap off of the top of the water heater and run pipes to the small fan-coil units that ill place in the living room and bedroom. They are actually automotive blower-heaters so are quite compact yet with good output. But first, ill install just the Solar domestic water system and monitor that. Heres an advantage of living in a hot climate : I just got out of the shower and I used the COLD water for a 5 minute shower ; with my cold water line being at least 150 feet from my well pump house and it being so hot here lately warming the ground...the underground cold water line gets heated up pretty good during the day and id estimate the cold water temp at the shower to be about 95 f ! Certainly warm enough for a quick shower without even turning on the HOT water faucet .
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