Pump and Pipe Sizing for a Solar Water or Space Heating System. Search The Renewable Energy site for Do-It-Yourselfers Overview of Sizing the Plumbing and Pump for Solar Collectors The basic underlying requirement is that you want a pump and plumbing system that will push enough heat transfer fluid (typically water) through your solar collectors to efficiently remove the heat that the sun is depositing in them.
Too little flow, and the collectors will run hotter and less efficiently, too much flow and you are wasting money on bigger pipes and pumps than the system needs, and using more pump power than you need to.
Home Depot. The $1000 Solar Water Heating System. Search The Renewable Energy site for Do-It-Yourselfers Directory -- for the system overview provided on this page:
24' X 8' Solar Panel. After lots of success with my solar water, air and electric projects, it was time to get serious and build big!
The first step was to choose a site that had lots of sun, but was out of the way of our other activities and had the best overall appearance. I spent months just walking around the house, imagining different locations and designs in my mind. After lots of consideration, I opted to build a ground mounted panel in the back yard by the tree line (all construction details below). The advantages are that it is completely out of the way, neighborhood friendly and being ground mounted, very easy to construct.
DIY Thermal Differential Controller (Solar Hot Water Pump Controller) Photo: BotheredByBees I’ve been looking into solar hot water systems for home heating and domestic hot water purposes for a while now.
I simply love the idea that I could have free, clean heat and hot water. I’m also a big fan of Gary’s work over on BuildItSolar.com. Reading his site, I noticed that many people are interested in his $1000 solar hot water system. Its a great experimental setup. Homemade Absorber Plate. Determining Solar Water Heating Collector Flow Rate. Search The Renewable Energy site for Do-It-Yourselfers Skip to the bottom line...
Background. Solar energy projects for Do It Yourselfers to save money and reduce pollution. Construction of Copper/Aluminum Hybrid Collector. Search The Renewable Energy site for Do-It-Yourselfers This is nothing fancy, and is easy to build with ordinary tools and skills, and it looks pretty good (at least to me :).
Most people will find all the materials are available locally. Building the Copper Pipe Grid.