brown dog Posted June 21, 2015 Report Share Posted June 21, 2015 I want to put together a couple of solar water heaters, along the lines a of a cabinet that looks broadly like this (but smarter!): I have two panels of triple glazed glass each approx 1.2 x 1.5m (so, quite large!) left over from work done recently. I'm thinking of making the cabinet back with marine-ply, the edges with treated wood, and then lining the back and sides of the cabinet with celotex, but, I'm a bit stuck on the pipework - 30mm/40mm/50mm pvc tube with t-junctions? Flexi 30/40/50 tube? Lots of cheap hosepipe? Grateful for any ideas! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terryh Posted June 21, 2015 Report Share Posted June 21, 2015 Matt, How about a central heating radiator painted matt black? T Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SWShooter Posted June 21, 2015 Report Share Posted June 21, 2015 Matt, How about a central heating radiator painted matt black? T Ive seen that done in warmer climes and it works , black plastic water pipe also works , I`m not sure why the OP wants to use triple glazed glass , surely this will stop heat getting through? , or will it magnify the UV? , the factory made units Ive seen use single glaze glass, keep us informed. PS I would be concerned about the plywood cabinet combusting , these things get very hot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brown dog Posted June 21, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 21, 2015 Matt, How about a central heating radiator painted matt black? T I think - but am not sure - that flow inside a domestic radiator is convection led - ie water is not forced to travel up/down every channel. , I`m not sure why the OP wants to use triple glazed glass , surely this will stop heat getting through? The device uses the sun's radiant heat - which will pass through the glass (which is why you get hot sitting in sunlight next to a window). Why triple glazed (or double)? 2 reasons: 1. This ain't the caribbean, I need to retain every bit of heat energy possible (and is why I plan to insulate the back and sides of the cabinet too) and 2. I have some Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bianchi Posted June 21, 2015 Report Share Posted June 21, 2015 My neighbour uses black PVC tubing (approx. 30mm) simply mounted on a square rear board painted black. Its rolled out in a coil shape like a snail with glazing on the front in a frame. Heat transfer via copper tube through convection and gravity that seems to prevent his giant goldfish pond from freezing over in winter. Can send a piccy next week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dylan5588 Posted June 21, 2015 Report Share Posted June 21, 2015 Anyone ever thought about running coiled pipe through a Muck/compost heap? it gets quite hot inside. Adrian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brown dog Posted June 21, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 21, 2015 Anyone ever thought about running coiled pipe through a Muck/compost heap? it gets quite hot inside. Adrian That's a bloomin good idea! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1066 Posted June 21, 2015 Report Share Posted June 21, 2015 Anyone ever thought about running coiled pipe through a Muck/compost heap? it gets quite hot inside. Adrian Yes, a lot of waste energy there - This was a traditional way of heating glass houses/Orangery in Georgian/Victorian times in grand housed. The vast compost heap placed up against the outside "hot" wall to heat the inside of the glass house. Double/triple glazing is good, short wave UV light passes through easily but the longer wave radiated heat can't pass out so easily. Here's a solar sun tracker I made a while ago. The dish was just an experiment to test the tracker. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4w2GX1OXu4w Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozone Posted June 21, 2015 Report Share Posted June 21, 2015 I have two panels of triple glazed glass each approx 1.2 x 1.5m (so, quite large!) left over from work done recently. I'm thinking of making the cabinet back with marine-ply, the edges with treated wood, and then lining the back and sides of the cabinet with celotex, but, I'm a bit stuck on the pipework - 30mm/40mm/50mm pvc tube with t-junctions? Flexi 30/40/50 tube? Lots of cheap hosepipe? Grateful for any ideas! Just remember that the water can get very hot so the pipes need to be capable of withstanding heat, the type that connect radiators and hot water should do. The fittings to the collector need to be copper. Also allow for the expansion due to increase of heat. It has been known for solar collectors to boil water................ ozone . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shuggy Posted June 22, 2015 Report Share Posted June 22, 2015 Anyone ever thought about running coiled pipe through a Muck/compost heap? it gets quite hot inside. Adrian Don't use copper pipe though as it will suffer from 'season cracking' by reacting with ammonia in the compost. Silicone tubing would work best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Offroad Gary Posted June 22, 2015 Report Share Posted June 22, 2015 http://www.hse.gov.uk/legionnaires/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brown dog Posted June 22, 2015 Author Report Share Posted June 22, 2015 http://www.hse.gov.uk/legionnaires/ Thanks for that, made me realise that the pipework layout must be easily fully drainable - that's prompted a slight mental re-design Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terryh Posted June 22, 2015 Report Share Posted June 22, 2015 Why not fill/dose the system with car anti freeze? T Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mauser3006 Posted June 22, 2015 Report Share Posted June 22, 2015 I want to put together a couple of solar water heaters, along the lines a of a cabinet that looks broadly like this (but smarter!): I have two panels of triple glazed glass each approx 1.2 x 1.5m (so, quite large!) left over from work done recently. I'm thinking of making the cabinet back with marine-ply, the edges with treated wood, and then lining the back and sides of the cabinet with celotex, but, I'm a bit stuck on the pipework - 30mm/40mm/50mm pvc tube with t-junctions? Flexi 30/40/50 tube? Lots of cheap hosepipe? Grateful for any ideas! What will you be using it for Matt? Love the idea of it, so simple. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mauser3006 Posted July 7, 2015 Report Share Posted July 7, 2015 Hey Matt, here's another solution. He keeps going off on a tangent but it's quite a good video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XFw7U7V1Hok Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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