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SOLAR HEATING SYSTEM CONSTRUCTION LOG
PROGRESS
REPORT:
October
17: Filling the solar system
Today I finished
all the solar system plumbing. The final assembly
was the heating
manifold that feeds water to the floor.
Here it is close
up and in context with the Aquastar propane heater
above - and the
water tank to the right.
The gray box
in the upper left is the pump relay box that I
built to control
the water circulation pumps (brown circles),
it is wired to
a digital thermostat that I located in the main
room of the workshop.
I have programmed it to set back the
temperature to
65 at night, and bring it up to 70 after sunrise.
The big event
today was filling the system with water and
glycol mixture.
The first step was filling the solar collectors
with a 50/50
glycol (antifreeze) mixture. Incidentally, this is
DowFrost
HD a specially formulated proplyene glycol
- a non- toxic
version of ethylene glycol used in
automobile radiators.
Do NOT use automobile antifreeze
it is very toxic
and will degrade in your system.
I did this with
a small transfer pump made by
Wayne
that I found at the
local hardware
store for about $80.00 where I also got some some clear tubing
that I put
hose connectors on - this lets me see any air bubbles that must be
eliminated in
the system before it is fired up.
Unfortunately
I discovered several leaks around the
Secespol
B130
heat exchanger
and had to pull it out to tighten several adapters.
Fortunately this
process was made easier by my foresight.
I had installed
unions on all the heat exchanger connections
to allow the
whole thing to be removed for service.
After replacing it I refilled the glycol - and no leaks!
Then on to the
water system. I attached the garden hose to the
bottom of the
water tank and filled it first. I have no running water
in the barn,
so I have to run a hose from the house over 60 feet
away.
The water eventually
filled up the tank and was allowed to drain
out the window
from another connection to that I could again
be sure to remove
all the air bubbles. I later re-connected the hose
to flush air
out of the floor plumbing loops too.
I worked into
the night and plan to get up just after sunrise to watch
the solar system
kick in. As the sun strikes the solar electric panel it will
power the DC
pump that will circulate water through the 2 solar collectors
as they heat
up. It will be a thrill to see my temperature gauges climb.
The propane company
comes out tomorrow morning to hook up
the gas line
to the Aquastar backup heater. Then I will be totally
in business!!