Solar radiant Heat

Zick · Dec 22, 2008

Thanks Phil,
Are you using any kind of water storage tank? I don't recall seeing one unless I missed it.

philbuilt · Dec 22, 2008

Yes, It is a 120 gal hot water tank. That is the pre heat to my old hot water tank. Solar is the only way this tank get heated although I could hook up the electric element. But that would only defeat the purpose.
Phil

Zick · Dec 22, 2008

Is it running your hydronic floor heat yet or are you using it strictly for DHW?

philbuilt · Dec 24, 2008

Zick,
I hope to finish the floor this weekend.
Phil

Tig · Jan 18, 2009

Hi Phil. I've been following this thread with much interest. I would like to incorporate this technology in the home that I'll be building next summer. How are your temperatures these days? It's been quite a cold snap around here.
Steve

philbuilt · Jan 18, 2009

Tig,
On sunny days we are seeing temps up to 170 deg. That was this week and the outside temp was 2

We are now running the radiant floor in the main part of the house. It did take some adjusting but we like it. The house stay at 68 d. Floor temp is 71 + - Today we turned on the second zone. Hopefully next weekend we will finish the insulation and turn on the last zone. The solar panels do keep up with the floors so far during the day when its sunny out.

Phil

philbuilt · Jan 25, 2009

The job is now complete all insulation in place. The solar panels have been keeping up with the full 1200 sf floor on.

Thats when the sun is shinning. It been about a week now and the temperature shift in the house is very minimal. I do like the radiant floors. BTW outside temps have been 0 to 31degs.
Phil

neucam · Jan 26, 2009

Congratulations on your project, as others have said and for any future projects, insulation top and bottom and caulking makes every heating project better. I moved into a new house a few years ago and the contractor did not caulk the windows around the frame inside. When I did that what a difference in how the house felt. It had the insulation, but if everything is not right then heating bills rise. We have natural gas heating and it still is low cost.

TDVT · Feb 4, 2009

Hi Phil, I have also been following your progress with interest & have a few questions. I live over in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, sort of in your neighborhood but I would guess a bit colder. The fact that's your having good success in northern NE is pretty intriguing.

Over here, we have an excellent site for solar, as well as a pretty tight house (timber-frame w/panels). I have also installed radiant heat in a family member's house, but that system is powered by a HE water heater, so it's the solar end of it I'm not familiar with. Actually, we bought some of the supplies from Radiantec (they are 2 towns away) but I don't think they even had a solar powered system at the time.

We haven't had much sun this winter so I was wondering how you fared on the cloudy days?

Is the stored hot water enough for overnight from sunny day to sunny day, or does your furnace go at night?

Have you run your furnace much to supplement the panels, otherwise?

Any other information would be appreciated

Thanks, Ted

philbuilt · Feb 7, 2009

Hi Ted,
Thanks for the interest in the project. I installed the panels to supplement the furnace and it does that well. On sunny days the furnace doesn't fire and the panels will keep up with the radiant floor. I have 2 teen age daughters and the hot water is in great demand. This years stats are looking good. 9/08 to 2/09 we used 368 gals of fuel oil. last year 9/07 to 2/08 498 gals of oil. So it seems to be working well. I was also able to get the FED tax credit of $2000. Every little bit helps. oil savings thus far $344.
You should go and see them at Radiant tec they have a setup there.

Phil

RonMar · Mar 13, 2009

Phil
So how is it going? I was wondering if you could post the model/specification info for your panels(particularly BTU output specs, if any).

Thanks

philbuilt · Mar 14, 2009

RonMar,
Here is a Pdf. of the panels. I couldn't be happier they just work even on cloudy days.
View attachment ae_series[1].pdf
I hope this is what you wanted. There are allot of places on line that sell them.
Phil

varmint · Mar 14, 2009

Very interesting, Phil. In the early 80's, I sold and installed Novan solar heating systems, and the Novan panels were very similar... except they had black chrome on copper panels. In fact, I just bought a system back from a homeowner who had to re-roof, and didn't want the bother of reinstalling (via crane) his five 6' x 8' panels. A friend and I are going to split the equipment, with him using 3 of the collectors and the heat exchange module, etc. for hot water. I will install 2 panels with a home made pump system to put heat in my shop, via an Ebay NASCAR oil cooler with a fan to move air thru it. Should be interesting.

RonMar · Mar 14, 2009

philbuilt said:
RonMar,
Here is a Pdf. of the panels. I couldn't be happier they just work even on cloudy days.
View attachment 123975
I hope this is what you wanted. There are allot of places on line that sell them.
Phil

Thanks Phil
They are put together kind of like I figured. What I was really looking for was some thermal data such as BTU/HR for direct sun. Granted, there are a lot of variables, but some basic info is really helpfull for me to get my brain around these projects. That Solar shed article was excellent in that regard with the daily BTU collection data.

Thanks

Zick · Nov 12, 2011

Hey Phil,
Just wondering how the systems been working out?

philbuilt · Nov 23, 2011

Zick said:
Hey Phil,
Just wondering how the systems been working out?

Hi Zick
I think the panels are just Great! They do there job without help from me.
I did change the antifreeze this year as prescribe .
I havn't posted in a long time due to my PC failing and
Replacing it with an IPad not a great plan but it works.
Best I can figure we are saving about 400 gals of oil per year.
Phil

Zick · Nov 23, 2011

Thanks for the update Phil, glad to hear their working out!

grsthegreat · Nov 23, 2011

So have you figured out how many years it will take to pay for itself??? just wondering. Id love to figure out an affordable alternative for my own place

Kyle241 · Nov 24, 2011

This is a great thread I had not seen previously! Phil you did exactly what I have been considering for the past year and the same supplier, Radiantec. My house currently is easy to heat as it's built with SIPs and has a masonry heater plus I have all my own wood so I don't use my furnace. But I am interested in heating my hot water as electricity bills here in Ontario are outrageous and are supposed to go up 100% (double) within the next two years.

Did I understand your posts correctly that you outlayed $11k for all this?

Tks.

philbuilt · Nov 25, 2011

Kyle241 said:
This is a great thread I had not seen previously! Phil you did exactly what I have been considering for the past year and the same supplier, Radiantec. My house currently is easy to heat as it's built with SIPs and has a masonry heater plus I have all my own wood so I don't use my furnace. But I am interested in heating my hot water as electricity bills here in Ontario are outrageous and are supposed to go up 100% (double) within the next two years.

Did I understand your posts correctly that you outlayed $11k for all this?

Tks.

11k but that was for the staple up radiant floor as well. I don't remember just what the solar
Portion was but would estimate $6000. Plus my labor.
I would only do 1 thing different. I would add a section of the solar radiant tube on the return side
Of the panels creating a higher return temp to the tank.
Phil