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SOLAR HEATING SYSTEM CONSTRUCTION LOG
PROGRESS
REPORT:
October
18: Solar system shakedown - more work needed
I was up with
the sun today hoping to see my solar system kick in
and start heating
my workshop from the sun.
Well, I had a
few surprises. First I had to wait until about 9:45 before
there was enough
sun on the solar panel to run the circulator pump.
Then when it
did run, I didn't see the temperatures go up on the gauges
as expected.
After careful study I determined that I had installed the
pump in the wrong
direction - it was trying to pull against the check
valve and going
nowhere! Since I had installed unions in the system
to allow service
removal of the pump it was a relatively simple matter
to remove, reverse,
and re-install.
Then the temperature
gauge quickly soared to 140F as the heated
glycol mixture
came in from the collector and ran through the
heat exchanger.
Then I noticed the leaks around the heat exchanger.
So once again,
remove, re-tighten, re-install. Much better. This
totally validates the extra time and expense of installing unions!
Then the propane
guy showed up to install the propane tank
and connect a
line to the Aquastar
heater. He did a very neat job.
But when we went
to test the heater by starting the floor circulation
pump the heater
didn't kick in. It is supposed to sense the water
flow via the
pressure drop then heat the outgoing water to 140F.
It seemed that
there was not enough pressure drop across the
heater to trigger
it to operate.
I made trip down
to Solar Market to pick up my
Windo-Therm
insulating windows.
These are add-on interior double pane plastic
film windows
that clip to the inside of the window and provide a
complete seal
against heat loss. See the
Windo-Therm
web site
for more details
of this amazing product.