ART TEC
Guy Marsden

SOLAR HEATING SYSTEM CONSTRUCTION LOG

PROGRESS REPORT:
July 26 Plumbing radiant heat manifold in the barn

It rained all morning today bringing the temperatures
down to a tolerable 60-70degrees, making work much
more comfortable.

Much of the morning was spent on a hardware store
run to find parts to connect my neighbor's air
compressor to the copper manifold for the radiant
plumbing system so it could be pressure tested.

Then I assembled all the copper parts and mounted them
to a board and sweated them together.

After repairing one bad joint the whole system held
60lbs of air pressure.  It will be kept under pressure
during the concrete pour.

Here's a bigger view of the radiant plumbing all laid out.
Too bad all this colorful stuff has to get buried in
3 inches of concrete!

I have laid out some studs on the floor to show where
I will be framing  in a partition wall for the utility room
that will later contain the solar power system
and batteries along the left wall.  We plan to power
the house from solar in a year or so.

I then formed in the back door, and laid out the form
for a small mud room for the side door.

I'm now ready and waiting to hear from the concrete
guy.  I'm hoping that he can pour tomorrow or
Saturday...

back                                      next