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Solar again
Wayco Wayne_2
Member Posts: 2,479
doing 2 jobs where I have run radiant floors and a solar company is providing the hot water plant. The solar companies are way back-logged and are months behind me. I've been waiting to get a gander at what and how they do what they do. Finally this Friday I got to see a partly done heating plant. I must say, I coulda done that, and maybe do a better job too. (no ego here.) :) I might be trying my hand at this solar thing soon. I just gotta learn a little more, not eh least of which is how much to charge for my services. Ack! Also drainback or closed system? Inquiring minds want to know. WW
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Comments
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Me too
I'm right there with you Wayne. I want to jump on that solar band wagon and believe there's huge potential there. Just not sure where to start.
I currently have a solar/ wind guy asking me for advice on how to do a radiant heated shop project. He's getting his hydronic info off of the DIY internet sites. It's been an uphill battle to re-educate him on basic hydronics done right! Then when I get to the solar part I just know what I've learned on line....0 -
Piping wise, solar
should be a simple addition to a hydronic loop. Just treat it as another input as you would a boiler.
I-dronics 3 from Caleffi has a dozen or more examples of piping options. Both closed loop and drainback are shown.
It shows piping with back up boiler tie in as well as instantanous water heaters downstream of the solar tank for DHW tasks.
I think drainback has some merit if you end up with a large array and small summertime loads. it will cover the small DHW or what ever and drain down until there is another call for heat.
I wonder about the economics of a large heating sized array with only a six month load, however???
Run some numbers covering 20- 30% of the load. That seems fairly do-able in most areas.
Most of the electronic solar controls like the Caleffi i-solar allow you to watch and charge two tanks. Priority to the DHW load, and then start loading the heating loop or storage.
Sizing the panels and tanks to the load, or portion of the load takes some calculations. Determine the design load for the job, identify what % you want to cover with solar and run the sizing calcs.
manufacturers and the SRCC website have output tables form most panel brands.
Rule of thumb 20- 30,000 BTU/ day for a 4X8 panel. Add up the number of panels, and size the storage to "park" that many btus.
hrBob "hot rod" Rohr
trainer for Caleffi NA
Living the hydronic dream0 -
Just finished an install
2 of the Veissmann Vac 20 tube panels, ran closed loop thru a 80 gal indirect tank, w/ 2 coils in it. Have hooked up one to the panels, and hope to reach high enough temps to pull heat off the second coil for an alternate injection pump, radaint floor heat.
Reality is I am not sure their will be enough heat off this to really justify the radiant floor option, but had to try it.
The 80 gal. quantity is preheated dhw, before it goes to the primary boiler heat source, w/ its own dhw indirect tank. So far not a lot of hot weather, but the tank eaisly gets up to 110 deg., and onnce I tweek the controls some I think I can keep the tank from stagnating and hope to get much higher.
With the current price of fuel I don't see how it won't have a decent payback time. Will be doing a couple more this summer, but this is the first I've done w/ solar.
As already stated its just another heat source. No real magic to it, but do plan on better controls on the panels and maybe a tank with a better heat exchanger?
Steve
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