ART
TEC
Guy
Marsden
SOLAR HEATING SYSTEM CONSTRUCTION LOG
PROGRESS
REPORT:
July
25 Installing radiant heat plumbing in the barn
Today
the temperatures climbed to 90 in the shade
with
high humidity too. Miserable working conditions,
but
I pressed on.
The
first step was to install 1" of Styrofoam over the existing
concrete
to insulate the radiant heat from the ground.
Then
I installed 6" grid wire mesh over that to use as a tie-down
for
the plumbing that will carry solar heated water
-- I'll
also have a Bosch Aquastar propane back up heater.
Then
I tied down the PEX tubing with dozens of cable ties.
The
whole arrangement is so colorful that it will be a shame
to
pour concrete over it!
This
all gets connected to a manifold in the back corner where
I
will wall in a utility room later.
I fed the PEX around
the perimeter walls first to combat the
cold entering from the exposed frost walls (that I
later insulated on
the outside with 2" of sheet foam board).
Here's the floorplan.
By the way
most of these pictures were taken with a timer since
I'm working
alone at this point, with a little help from
my neighbor,
Charlie.