This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 at 4:19 pm and is filed under Home Energy, Home Solar Power, Renewable Energy, Solar assisted water heating. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
Beware of therm o siphoning
August 16, 2006We just returned from a vacation and I had left the data logger running to monitor the system, taking readings every 60 seconds — the interval for all these plots.
The plot showed a surprising loss of heat each evening, I would have expected to see a continuous gain in stored temperature in the tank, and a much higher temperature overall. I assume that the collectors are reverse thermosiphoning (cold water in the collectors flowing down) in the cool night air which is dropping to the low 60’s and upper 50’s.
I emailed the plot below to Barry Butler, and he suggested that I shut off the Solar Wand flow at the valve right above it overnight, and turn it back on in the am. This would prevent any reverse thermo-siphon from the collectors. I will also turn off the pump using the ON-AUTO-OFF switch on my Differential Temperature Controller. Barry said that they can send me a one-way check valve if this test prevents heat loss.
Average tank temperature 102.097F
A little glitch, but hey, there is always a solution if you put your mind to it. In this case just a phone call helped a lot. Never be afraid to ask for help.
Just a reminder, that you can also build your own solar panels for the project easily as well as work on your complete home solar systems for a complete home solar power package. Creating a complete sustainable living lifestyle is the goal of many, but others choose going about it in a slower fashion. Knowing how to build your own solar panels for home can lessen the financial burden by building and implementing them a few a t a time, eventually you’ll get there. At the link above, you can explore the DIY kits for this project and 11 others, such a building a wind power generator and other solar powered projects that would enhance your homes value and save money on your power bills.
Tomorrow, we continue
