TnAndy
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2013
- Messages
- 1,993
- Location
- East Tennessee
- Tractor
- Yanmar LX410...IHI 35J excavator Woodmizer LT40
So my little hoophouse we got a start on late last year, we decided to finish it off this year with a concrete floor, pex tubing in the floor and in the new center raised bed.
Last year, we got the main structure done in the fall, with raised beds around the outer edges. We grew cool weather crops like lettuce, spinach, broccoli, cabbage, etc all winter, but we had to cover them with frost blankets when the weather got in the low 20's and below......which was a lot of nights here.
Still did pretty good, but was a lot of effort to keep stuff from freezing out. One nice thing....you don't have many bug problems at 20 degrees......ahahahaaaaaaa.......
So, this summer, poured a concrete floor with pex in the floor, and where the center bed will be.....plus went back and buried a loop in the outside bed as well.
Center bed built, and full of green beans and broccoli....about the end of Sept, 2014.
Built a framework out of 2" galvanized pipe, and 2x2 galvanized angle to hold the collectors.
Bought 3 - 16 tube collectors and plumbed them in series. These are the collector frames and header manifolds:
Here is the completed collector with 48 vacuum tubes, plumbed into the wall of the hoophouse.
Just inside, 120gallon SS tank. Has dual exchange coils inside, I'm only using the one for the collector loop. (black insulated line with silver tape stripes is the "in" from the collector)
The heated water comes off the top of the tank, down into that red Bell&Gosset 1/12hp circulation pump, into the floor pex pipe, and back into the bottom of the tank. Right now, I've just got it controlled with a simple single pole switch. The controller that came with the hot water system does have a relay set up to control a separate pump like this, so once I get a little more down pat as to my heat production, I'll switch the pump over to that so I can set it up automatically.
The 'working station' (green pump) that comes with the system, and the differential thermostat. Measures the collector out temp (T1) and compares it with the temperature in the lower-mid part of the tank. If the collector is 8 degrees C higher, the pump runs (factory default, you can field set to what you want).
JUST got it all hooked up this morning, and the collector loop fill with antifreeze mix. Naturally, we had almost no sun today, so the tank temperature only went from 59C to 65C by the end of the day. Rest of the week is forecast to be a lot better, so we'll see how much heat I can get out of it.
Hope you enjoyed the show !
Last year, we got the main structure done in the fall, with raised beds around the outer edges. We grew cool weather crops like lettuce, spinach, broccoli, cabbage, etc all winter, but we had to cover them with frost blankets when the weather got in the low 20's and below......which was a lot of nights here.
Still did pretty good, but was a lot of effort to keep stuff from freezing out. One nice thing....you don't have many bug problems at 20 degrees......ahahahaaaaaaa.......
So, this summer, poured a concrete floor with pex in the floor, and where the center bed will be.....plus went back and buried a loop in the outside bed as well.
Center bed built, and full of green beans and broccoli....about the end of Sept, 2014.
Built a framework out of 2" galvanized pipe, and 2x2 galvanized angle to hold the collectors.
Bought 3 - 16 tube collectors and plumbed them in series. These are the collector frames and header manifolds:
Here is the completed collector with 48 vacuum tubes, plumbed into the wall of the hoophouse.
Just inside, 120gallon SS tank. Has dual exchange coils inside, I'm only using the one for the collector loop. (black insulated line with silver tape stripes is the "in" from the collector)
The heated water comes off the top of the tank, down into that red Bell&Gosset 1/12hp circulation pump, into the floor pex pipe, and back into the bottom of the tank. Right now, I've just got it controlled with a simple single pole switch. The controller that came with the hot water system does have a relay set up to control a separate pump like this, so once I get a little more down pat as to my heat production, I'll switch the pump over to that so I can set it up automatically.
The 'working station' (green pump) that comes with the system, and the differential thermostat. Measures the collector out temp (T1) and compares it with the temperature in the lower-mid part of the tank. If the collector is 8 degrees C higher, the pump runs (factory default, you can field set to what you want).
JUST got it all hooked up this morning, and the collector loop fill with antifreeze mix. Naturally, we had almost no sun today, so the tank temperature only went from 59C to 65C by the end of the day. Rest of the week is forecast to be a lot better, so we'll see how much heat I can get out of it.
Hope you enjoyed the show !
