Travis Johnson
Member
- Messages
- 2,369
I was curious what you guys and gals thought of this idea...a doozy I know...that is using the sun to heat water to help heat my house. I have a pretty good roof pitch and it is facing due south, so that gives me an area that is 52 feet long by 20 feet wide to put some collectors on.
Now to save money I would like to make my own collectors out of framing lumber, pex tubing and whatnot. I think I could cobble something up that is inexpensive to build, but semi-effecient.
Now my real question is, do you think this would work? Now I am not looking to get rid of my propane boiler, I know I would still need that, but like today, its bright and sunny out at 60 degrees. Yet tonight it will hit 40 degrees. It sure would be nice to heat water today and then cycle tonight in my radiant slab. The question is would the delay be too long for my floor to heat up to feel the difference?
At the same time I know when it hits 30 below this winter my collectors won't due squat, hey this is Maine after all. But do you think it would be worth it to cobble something up for the other 3/4 of the year?
The way I see it, I would have to have a circulating pump that comes on according to water temp. The coolant would have to by glycol as well in case of freezing on the roof. By the way my radiant fllor heat, boiler and the rest are tied into my domestic hot water via a storage tank.
Now while I have everyone thinking of radiant floor heat, what about radiant floor cooling? We don't have AC's here, no need really, but it would be nice to keep things cool on the few nights is does get hot. I was thinking pumping cold water from my well through my slab would cool things down some. But then I am not so sure. Well water is 60 degrees all the time, won't my slab be about that same temp since it is resting on the ground as well?
Just curious as to what you thought about this. As others are trying to do on here, I am not trying to be green as much as I am trying to be cheap and put my radiant floor heat to maximum use.
Now to save money I would like to make my own collectors out of framing lumber, pex tubing and whatnot. I think I could cobble something up that is inexpensive to build, but semi-effecient.
Now my real question is, do you think this would work? Now I am not looking to get rid of my propane boiler, I know I would still need that, but like today, its bright and sunny out at 60 degrees. Yet tonight it will hit 40 degrees. It sure would be nice to heat water today and then cycle tonight in my radiant slab. The question is would the delay be too long for my floor to heat up to feel the difference?
At the same time I know when it hits 30 below this winter my collectors won't due squat, hey this is Maine after all. But do you think it would be worth it to cobble something up for the other 3/4 of the year?
The way I see it, I would have to have a circulating pump that comes on according to water temp. The coolant would have to by glycol as well in case of freezing on the roof. By the way my radiant fllor heat, boiler and the rest are tied into my domestic hot water via a storage tank.
Now while I have everyone thinking of radiant floor heat, what about radiant floor cooling? We don't have AC's here, no need really, but it would be nice to keep things cool on the few nights is does get hot. I was thinking pumping cold water from my well through my slab would cool things down some. But then I am not so sure. Well water is 60 degrees all the time, won't my slab be about that same temp since it is resting on the ground as well?
Just curious as to what you thought about this. As others are trying to do on here, I am not trying to be green as much as I am trying to be cheap and put my radiant floor heat to maximum use.