Domestic Coil

traderfjp wrote:Beatle. I ended up buying wire in a metal jacket and then attached a plug to one end and plugged it in. I was going to hard wire and use a switch and really couldn't justify the extra work. I haven't tried throttling down the flow with the vavle and am not sure I need to but it's an option that is there.

And running the pump at 100% flow works OK for you?

So how much did you spend on those solar hot water panels? I REALLY want to do something like that at my house.

Thanks,
Jeremy

I haven't played with trying to toggle down the flow of water but 100% unrestricted flow seems to work great. I probably have less than 40 ft. of baseboard heat I'm running the coil water through. The solar panels were cheap and only cost me 200.00-250.00 a panel. These panels are for a pool so I'm thinking I'll have to diy a new panel or buy something already made. The panels are made out of plastic and are durable but leaks have developed and I have replaced two under warranty in the last 5 years.

I would need some type of aquastat or something that would only allow the water to circulate through the tank when it hit a certain temp and I would want to keep my oil hot water setup for a backup. At night the panels would actually cool the water if the water was allowed to circulate so some thought will have to go into designing this system. I can tell you that the panels I have now do a fantastic job of heating my 20 x 40 pool. I usually can keep the pool at 86 through the season. On colder nights/rain I have to cover the pool to keep the heat in but on most days I don't cover the pool and it still maintains temp.

I have two solar hot water panels that I may finally get around to hooking up to my domestic hot water system this summer.. The price of propane has finally gone from the expensive, to the painful and ridiculous level... So I think this is the summer for figuring it all out.
I don't know the brand, but they are aluminum enclosed panels about 5'x10' with glazing over them.. I will have to figure out, like stated above an aquastat control so the panels won't be coolers after dark. But I believe any heating of the domestic water using solar will be benefial, and save $$

Greg L

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not to further thread jack this thread on domestic coils, but

My uncle has 2 hot water panels and they run on a closed the loop. He then uses a heat exchanger and pump to circulate the water from the electric hw tank through the heat exchanger. His is either on timer or temp, not sure.

He said his panels don't care f the sun is out or not, they absorb energy as long as it's daylight.... I think he called it a convection heat system....

I'll have to pick his brain a bit more and get a better understanding.

LS- can you tell me where you purchased the panels?

Right now I have a Bock oil HW heater. To do what I want I think I need an indirect tank so the water can be mixed with antifreeze and ran through the coils in the tank and through the panels so I can still use it when it gets cold out. I could make room for another tank but it's getting tight in my boiler rooom.

I bought the two panels, an indirect heater and storage tank at a garage sale.. The folks had had the roof reshingled, and didn't want the system anymore.. So I bought it,, I'm embarrased to say what I paid,, it was less than the cost of the circulator pump in the system... I paid exactly what the man asked, paid in cash in full and got the stuff out of there that afternoon... I wasn't going to let him change his mind !!

I'll try to get out to the storage barn and see if there is a name/manufacturer plate on the collectors.

Greg L
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