Solar Success!

Yes, he's done it! The solar system on the house is up and running and cranking away as I type. If you are looking for pictures of the kids, or any human for that matter, then this post is NOT for you (well, Bill is in a couple of the pictures so I take that back-although he is a bit like an awesome machine)! If you like to read about plumbing, solar gain and heat loss, then by all means, keep on reading!

He got the panels secured on roof this past weekend. Better him than me, climbing that ladder and being that high up freaks me out!

Then he tinkered around a bit to get things tweaked just right.

Here's the tank in the garage that collects the water from the system. It was a used 200 gallon 304 stainless steel tank with insulated sides. He wanted to make sure I pointed out his vintage ski jacket, circa 1990 something, now designated a work jacket!

So, put it all together and this is what we've got (described in the way I understand it, not necessarily the way it was explained!)

This solar differential temperature controller shows that the panels are collecting water at a temp of 85.7 degrees. The water gets dumped into the storage tank and so the water in the tank is slowly beginning to warm up as well. This shows that it is 77.4 degrees in the tank. Bill has the radiant floor heating system hooked up to the tank sending 77.4 degree water out to the house floor and getting 71.0 degree water back from the house. The concrete slab should work as an energy storage mass for the house. This is only the 2nd good sunny day, so more sunny days should let us keep warming up the tank and the floor every day. He will also add another set of pipe to the tank which should allow us to pre-heat or fully heat the house hot water system too. In the summer without heating needed in the winter, the system should be able to make 140+ degree water.

Yeah, umm Bill came and typed all that while I was putting L and L down for a nap...thanks honey!Looking down into the holding tank. And tomorrow, back to things that everyone will understand!