Solar Heating Plan for Any Home
(Page 2 of 8)
December 2007/January 2008
By Gary Reysa
Our system is designed to be as simple as possible. It uses a design in which water drains back from the collectors into the storage tank for freeze protection. Because it uses plain water and the system is vented to the atmosphere, there is no need for expansion tanks, pressure relief valves, vacuum breakers, antifreeze or heat exchangers. The collector loop plumbing consists of a few feet of pipe and a circulation pump — that’s all. This simplicity reduces the cost and labor to put the system together, and the absence of heat exchangers increases efficiency.
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The total amount of work does add up, so be sure to allocate sufficient time — it’s not a one weekend project. But, it’s not rocket science. If you can build a deck, you can build this system.
Designing the System
The shed can be almost any design. We chose a modified gambrel roof to match the style of our existing garage and to provide a loft with good storage room. The only requirements are that the shed has a south wall or steep south roof extending to ground level and is large enough to provide the collector area that you want.
To make it easier to integrate the collectors with the south wall of the shed, choose the south wall width, height and stud spacing to match the collectors. This may result in slightly unconventional dimensions. The best plan is to start from the size of the collector absorber plates and glazing panels, and work from there.
We chose the collector bay frame width spacing of 48 1/4 inches so that standard 48-inch glazing panels could be mounted directly on the collector frames with no cutting. The quarter inch allows for glazing panel expansion. (See “Collector Cross-Section” below.)
The absorber plates are the heart of the collector, and much of the collector’s performance depends on the absorber. The plates also are fairly difficult and time consuming to make because they consist of a series of copper tubing soldered to copper sheeting. The copper tubes are connected by manifolds. The absorber plates can be purchased with a selective finish that reduces heat loss, making them more efficient. We decided to buy pre-made StarFire collector absorber plates, then make the rest of the collector frame and covering from standard lumber and greenhouse supply parts. We used twin-wall polycarbonate glazing, which is slightly more efficient than single wall glazing and is easy to work with (see “Resources” below).
In order for the collectors to drain back to the tank when the pump shuts off, the collectors must slope down toward the tank. This requires that the entire bank of collectors be sloped toward one end with a slope of at least one-eighth inch per foot. The plumbing also must be sloped, and no lines should be less than three-quarter inch diameter. We used 1-inch copper pipe.
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