I bought one of these to heat the floor in one room of our house. Don't waste your money. It was in the sun all day today and only got the water in the unit slightly warm. I didn't even bother turning on the pump to circulate it into the floor. I think a coil of black pipe on the ground would have done better. I thought this would be good because the water is kept in an insulated manifold which would reduce my risk of freezing.
I found similar results Ben. I did a 48 tube array (3-16 tube manifolds in series)....was not impressed.
Well , seeings how you're stuck with it now ,, try mounting it in a glass fronted box painted black inside and see what it does . I'm curious to know if it helps,,, but of course , now ,, that knowledge would come at your expense .
@BenP They work but are slow , turn on the pump to cool the heat header. YOU had the heat header boil the "coolant" / transfer liquid and then the system stopped working . I set mine up to have a PV solar panel to power the pump ,on the side of the collector , SUN out , collection and power to the pump , keeping the transfer going . Give that a try , And push the coolant through the collector , if the pump has to much head , you will need a pressure system and a pressure air relief (Tasco ) ..1 Bar /14.7 Psig = 29 feet rise Sloth
I did an experiment using the same technology, only I put glass over the copper tubing, and in an hour It was up to 160 degrees. I also put a 5-gallon tank inside a glassed box and got 130 degrees at the very same time. My efforts proved the tank ( because of ita volume although not as hot in the hour produced more hot water in that hour. if I had used larger pipe in the first glassed box I probably would have been happier, however it works great as a preheater. I have tried to teach people but they won't listen . Glazing over the tubing (encasing the whole assembly) prevents the wind from drawing off the heat.
Yup, fact is you need to conserve what energy you capture which means to totally isolate/insulate the system and then to use it effectively you need a way to transfer that energy to your place of need. In the early years I used a black 55 gallon drum mounted on a roof of the pump house. Cold water came in from the well at 55 degrees and exited from the top. Hot water was available until well after dark and a hot shower was great even in the winter in an outside shower. In my case it was a pressure system feed by the electric pump. Little steps like this is a way to pay as you go and not need to pay intrest on the money you need to start a homestead. Later I bought used/demo unit solar unit that used a solar panel and a separate control panel/station, I did drain the system when not on site. Solar was copper tubing in an insulated metal box soldered to a copper plate painted black.
I'm also wondering if you got air trapped inside the header at the top! Air trapped inside will really screw with the heat transfer, similar to a steam system, any air and you get things really screwed up! I would also follow what Sloth says, polished silver on the back and sides of a black box with clear glass cover, and might as well fill the gaps between the main tubes with a secondary system, nothing like wasted space that could be put to better use!
Years ago we installed a lot of this type of system for domestic hot water and floor heating. These things always worked great. There is no water in the tubes, just the header, and with too little flow they will boil the water quickly and become vapor locked. If the panels are higher than the pump as in a rooftop installation then an air separator must be installed where the water exits the header. I really can't imagine dissatisfaction with these collectors, as they out performed every other system we ever installed by a large margin. We did several homes in which these were the primary domestic hot water (with a storage tank of course).
Back in the 1920s Day and Night water heaters came up wit the idea of solar water heating but what they did not count on was freezing. It almost bankrupt the company. There are a few ways to deal with this problem. 1, use heat exchanger and either use salt water or antifreeze, The heat exchanger would then be inside the home heating the fresh water, and this system works fine. Note that some folk use solar water heating as a "preheater" to their regular water heater significantly reducing the amount of fuel required to normally elevate the water temperature. (Time is money) Solar water heat can be used all over the house and shop even for deicing the driveway and walk ways, but of course these have to be built in when the ways are constructed, insulated from the ground. The second way is to pipe the air ( via small DC blower) inside the solar panel in conjunction with some heat source in the house so that during the night the pipes are kept from freezing and the heat source you are normally using any way will keep the solar water warm as well. If the box is double glassed and insulated the losses would be minimal. And during the day the heat generated by the solar would then be returning to the internal heat source in the house. People in the past had run blowers simply from pipes only pushing air with nothing to do with making hot water. Solar may not provide 100% of what you are expecting/needing, but it does make a significant contribution to the over-all demand. Some folk take no thought for solar when constructing a home and pay high heating bills, Others take great interest and enjoy a very efficient home. I had a friend the built a glassed mud room entrance to his home which faced south. They virtually had to keep the front door shut because it would heat the 2 story 4 bedroom house more than they wanted. Solar is worth learning about.
There is no pressure, I have an open stand pipe where I fill the system with RV antfreeze. I have been walking by and running the pump every now and then, I have felt it get warm once. I will put more work into it and see what I can do. The whole house is off grid, I was hoping this would save some firewood.
Worth investigating further. We used to have to put moving blankets over them if we needed to service them to keep them from making steam. My home install uses 1 Sunmaxx 30 tube unit and a 60 gallon storage tank with a 6 gpm pump. We have hot water even on cloudy and cold days. Initial start-up with 71 degree city water going up was bringing back 117 degree water on a sunny day in June of 2014. I have seen the tank reach 165 degrees.
you need to blead out all the air pockets , and have the resting pressure of at least 3 psi so 5 / 7 feet of head . This depends on your height / altitude . Sloth
I wonder if there was not some problem with setup? I made something similar it worked well until night time temps started freezing everything.
