Quote:
Originally Posted by theunchosen
. . .:madface:
Since you shot down my anti-freeze you should use a refrigerant. . .lol just kidding.
I really did not know that about anti-freeze. I'll have to go dig through some compressed liquid tables and find a better heat transistor.
|
Maybe heat pipes? I totally don't know. . . .
Quote:
Originally Posted by theunchosen
Oh, method one was to have the anti-freeze pipes travel around the incoming water pipes to heat as it enters(before the tank)
|
Ah HA I've got it! But then you need sunshine when you have water demand; or is there another storage?
Quote:
Originally Posted by theunchosen
technique 2 is to put the coils in the tank. One of the only times you see type one over type 2 is when there is no convenient place for a tank to do the exchanging(or not tank at all).
|
That's how I initially thought to do my system. Only reason I switched was the inherent efficiency of electric tankless heaters. (I know not 100% but bear with me) when used in my varying demand situation (Much of the time no one is home, much of the time it's just 2 people, and much of the time I have lots of house guest).
Quote:
Originally Posted by theunchosen
I was not sure if you had an additional pump to make sure the water made it to the roof or not.
|
My house is all about KISS.
My car's on the other hand . . . .
Quote:
Originally Posted by theunchosen
If you did the spring could just be gauged against the pressure of the incoming water and the pump and then just shut it off at night. Since you use one pump/diaphram whatever its just as easy to install a valve on the hotside of the solar unit(as it comes into the water heater).
|
I'm not following you; sorry maybe a flow diagram?
Quote:
Originally Posted by theunchosen
I think the reason most systems use anti-freeze is for the dual purpose of avoiding freezing(I live in TN and it would freeze most nights from late october to now)
|
I totally hear you on the freezing; I've had a run in with it already and don't like it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by theunchosen
and also if you had a much bigger array(more sun it sounds like in your case) you might want to go with anti-freeze to avoid it getting hot enough to increase the pressure on your lines.
|
Mine just relies on the collector tank being large enough to absorb the 16 hours of heat and loose enough at night so that it does not boil the following day less than ideal.
Quote:
Originally Posted by theunchosen
Anti-freeze won't get near its saturated point as soon and therefore it won't get close to the point where temperature heavily influences pressure.
|
That's also a benefit to the drain back systems; they operate at virtually no pressure so no matter how hot the collector gets the pipes will not over pressurize.
Quote:
Originally Posted by theunchosen
Kudos Dremd
|
Kudos 2 you as well for thinking out of the box.