Solar Tube Owners, Please Weigh In
lfielder54
13 years ago
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Comments (19)
joyce_6333
13 years agomacv
13 years agoRelated Discussions
Question 2: plumbing of solar panels
Comments (22)I know a sheet of metal roofing would hold the water away from the roof. I guess if I was careful I might be able to just use the metal and one piece of glazing. But wouldn't another piece of insulation under the metal make it more efficient? Bending the edges up just a bit might make me less paranoid about leaks. Another option as apposed to screws is to use construction adhesive. It is really tough stuff. You folks are making me itchy to get out in my shop. After X-mas maybe. I think I should probably build a very small experimental trickle through collector just to try it out and see how I do with leakage. about the "sky cooling" . . . It all makes sense for the most part. Though biology is more my thing than physics. If you wouldn't mind explaining a bit more I would appreciate it. I am having trouble connecting the cooling of the panel with your explanation karen. So lets say you have a panel that is circulating warmish water in it that you want to cool down. You put it on the shady side of the house on a day when the air temperature is greater than the temperature of the water you want to cool off. So the water molecules release IR radiation into the panel and the panel passes that IR on to the air. The air is made up of all sorts of stuff, oxygen, nitrogen, CO2, water vapor & then a bunch of trace stuff. So here comes our IR wave and it runs into a gas molecule. With sunlight the gas molecules would absorb some energy and start bouncing around faster. We would measure this as a higher air temperature with a thermometer. I would imagine that the with the air being warmer than the water in the panel it would do the same thing in terms of energy transfer and warm up the water. Does IR work differently? Do some gases reflect the IR or not interact with it at all? This seems to be the key paragraph that is confusing me. "Now, not only are things on the surface radiating, but things above you are as well. However, the atmosphere isn't a nearby solid (ARE YOU IMPLYING THAT THE ATMOSPHERE RADIATES DIFFERENTLY BECAUSE IT IS A GAS INSTEAD OF A SOLID?). You're getting radiation from a broad range of particles, from ones radiating right above you, further, further, and further away, all the way out to the frigid edge of the atmosphere and beyond. It is the net radiation of these particles that matters in determining how much incoming infrared is absorbed by something that faces skyward (SO YOU ARE SAYING THAT THE NET INCOMING RADIATION FROM THE ATMOSPHERE IS LEss THAN THE OUTGOING RADIATION FROM THE PANEL?)." I am still a bit lost. Sorry for needing so much explanation. If you ever have frog questions feel free to ask and maybe I can reciprocate a bit....See MoreOwner/builder, advice, a few questions
Comments (26)First thanks every one for their advice it is very helpful to hear the naysayers as well as the yay sayers. If I can't come up with a solution to the problem you present, then I have a problem. vhehn- time will be somewhat short but as long as we get a loan money shouldn't be too short. I do know it will take us a long time to build and we are prepared for that and OK with it. A lot of people express concerns with SB I am OK with that too. Please don't feel like I am dismissing your comments out of hand. Some of them I have heard many times before and some of them I am keeping in mind as I go along. We are working on deciding how we will deal with the long build time. The whole financing situation is something we are just starting to address and well aware that financing for a SB house is difficult to get. So if we can't get it, then we can't and we will decide on a different building envelope. frog - I personally have not investigated logging however we are building next door to the ILs who are timber farmers with 60 years of experience and a mill. The lumber would be stored where they can keep an eye on it so I am not too worried. It is a lovely area and property prices or sky high so 20 acres for the cost of power/water/septic is a steal. ajpl - thanks for you thoughts, I sent you an message via flickr. We are doing a timber frame rather than structural SB so there will be a roof up before the bales ever arrive on site so there isn't the usual worries about getting them up super quick and finished off before it rains. You posted your house plan on another thread I started and I really liked them except that there wasn't a bedroom on the ground floor for when we get old :). Otherwise it was just what we were looking for. flgargoyle - I will look into the grading of lumber requirements. We plan on being careful about permitting and such as well. The ILs weren't and haven't had a problem but we don't want to take the risk. We do have concerns about living in an RV with two small children. Our first choice would be a habitable workshop but we are not sure what the zoning permitting situation would be for that. Terry_t - We will only have two kids when we are building, one that is 2-3 and another that is 5-6. But two small children isn't really much better than 3, we are banking on babysitting help from the ILs. Thanks for your suggestions on advance prep work we have been wondering what we can do before we get the ball really rolling. Luckily our site is flat and pretty clear for a large area. A log home is actually something we would consider if a SB became impossible. FIL has already built two log houses so we have some one with experience handy to help. We are aware of the YDKWYDK principle and have plans to get consultants when possible. We have one recommendation already from some one who has already built a TF SB house in the area. We also have close family members with various construction experience (electric installation, plumbing, framing, roofing, finish carpentry). We are also working on making the most of the years leading up the build, learning all we can. This will all take a lot more planning and thought so if you think of hurdles please post them so I can figure out how to jump over them :)....See MoreNXR stove owners I need pics!
Comments (5)Hmmm ours was the 30" model and I think the "connection" was on the left side yes, however if I remember correctly it seems as though our "cutout" was all the way across the bottom I thought. Was plenty of room for about anything on ours I thought, don't know if the 36" is different though. and yes the legs are easily adjustable so you can level it and get it to exact counter height....See MoreSCAL, please respond about your solar setup
Comments (25)Your concern is valid and warranted. I am 100% confident that there is a vacuum at the top of your panels when operating at low speed. I can give you an estimate as to the amount but I can tell for sure what the maximum pressure is because the filter pressure will always be higher than the panel pressure by the height of the panels. So: Panel Pressure Panel Pressure -4.5 PSI is an absolute maximum pressure for the panels and with a guess of 2 PSI dynamic head loss in the filter, pipe and panels, the pressure is likely to be less than -6.5 PSI at the output of the panels. This is pretty low and probably a high estimate so the vacuum is likely to be stronger than that or more negative. If you want to know for sure what the pressure is, the only way to do that, besides the above calculation, is to measure it at the top of the panels but you would need a port of some sort to connect the vacuum guage. There is really nothing you can do short of running at high speed to make the pressure above 0 PSI. Low speed does not have enough energy to create enough pressure no matter what you do. But consider this. Turnover for a 15k g pool and a 1 1/2 HP pump at high speed is close to 3 hours and for low speed about 6 hours. During the summer months, you will probably need more than one turnover so running at high speed would give 2 turnovers in 6 hours when the sun is the strongest and heat transfer the greatest. Also, when you reach desired temperature and solar turns off, the pump can downshift to low speed so you will at least save some money during that time. Also, during the winter months, I assume you don't close and don't swim so you can use low speed 100% of the time and save there. So although you are not saving money 100% of the time, you will still be better off than a single speed pump so you will only be giving up a portion of the savings. In the end, you will have to make the final decision as to if it is worth the energy savings to risk the panel life. But in my opinion, it is just not worth the risk....See Morelfielder54
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