Solar Introduction 101 and Solar Tour

Introduction to solar space heating and solar water heating with a DIY solar hot water collector and a solar hot air collector. These solar panels are easy to build and provide lots of free, environmentally friendly heat! I also include a segment on our solar thermal storage tank and how I preheat our domestic hot water and store heat for our under floor radiant heating system and winter space heating.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• solar hot air
• solar hot water
• solar collector
• easy to build
• save money
• environmentally friendly
• solar panel
• space heating
• free
• fun
• interesting
• educational

[GScottVideos]

Hi, typical payback is around 2 years for the air systems and 3 to 4 years for the hydronic (liquid / water) systems. They should last decades, so either way, your investment will pay you back many times over. That said, the money savings isn't the best reason to do solar. The best reason of all is that this is all really, really interesting and fun!

[raidnuker]

hello great system looks impressive, i was wondering what you used to line the inside of your hot water tank?

[GScottVideos]

@raidnuker Hi,

I used EPDM pond liner to line the thermal storage tank. It is good to something like 200F and should last a LONG time.

[solarguyable]

Great System! How do you keep the water lines from bursting when the outside temp gets below freezing?

[GScottVideos]

@solarguyable I use a mixture of water and environmentally friendly glycol so that the fluid never freezes.

[solarguyable]

@GScottVideos awesome! How did you figure out how much copper line you would need for your heat storage/transfer tank? Also, would you have better efficiency if you doubled the amount rows of pex in the panel? Thanks!

[GScottVideos]

@solarguyable Hi, regarding the copper in the solar thermal storage tank, I just used about 75 feet - what I happened to have on hand. Regarding doubling the pex rows, yes, I think that would not only collect more heat directly, but by feeding in parallel, resistance would be reduced and my total flow would increase, so that would help in two ways. You sound like you would enjoy our SimplySolar e-mail group. We would love to have you join us!

[beerman1957]

How long did it take to get 100% payback on the investment? Once that is reached it's all bonus savings! It seems this would pay off in a few years. I love the concept of getting back at my electric company.

[GScottVideos]

@TouchOfGreatness Thanks for your kind words!

[TouchOfGreatness]

Thanks for the video and sharing this information. I look forward to constructing one of these myself. Your video was very inspiring.