Thread: Flat plate hot water solar collector design Phase 111

Well this has been a very interesting design build project. But sadly it comes to a successful conclusion...... I have had so much fun with this and it has out performed my expectations at every turn.....

Automation:
I am running everything at 24VAC on the control side. For safety reasons.

First i added a 24 volt valve i found at Global in the sprinkler dept... What a find, it was designed for me personally i think... It opens and closes manually or with 24v applied at the valve and is fully adjustable... Next time you are in Global look at all the goodies in the sprinkler dept...

Next i added float sw.. to control the water lever in the tank... Kinda boring pretty cookie cutter..

Then i added a sun block to the tank. To keep the sun from wrecking the tank.. These cold tanks or very well designed. But the rays from the sun will reak havok on them in a few years.. So i solved the problem , easy.... I also reinforced the tank, and added a rubber seal to the top, Now completly sealed and working great.....

The pics you see are with the skin off of the tank so you can see the construction.











Thought you might like this .... It is my hi tech soldering gun.... Actually it workes as good or better than my plug in... That is the transformer i used to take the control voltage down to 24VAC for the filling of the tank.




If anyone is interested ... My next project is going to be designing and building a chiller for my house.
My plans or to get two or three old fan coil units to hang in the house then build a chiller for storing and distrubiting water to the fan coil units. This way i can have a fairly small chiller and spot cool variious sections of the house with one small unit... At night the bedroom,,,, durinng the day my living room,,,, or kitchen...
I think it will be a good project for me, and if anyone is interested in helping jump in ....

It will be a while before i get started but I will post when i get ready to start my design and build phase.... cheerssssssssssssss.

Gary