Oil Burner, gas burner, hp questions..

[W1RKW]

Bill,
I think it could work but I'm not 100% sure.  I can let you know because in my case I lucked out and was able to purchase a few 4x10 commercially build solar panels, a heat exchanger, circulator pumps and a control unit, all for $100.00.  So I don't have much to lose.

The solar panels need a little bit of work but for the most part they're in good condition.  I don't have the system setup yet.  I bought this stuff last winter and didn't have the time to dick/with it but I'm planning to use them to provide some heat  to my garage and/or basement during the winter. 

I did build a cart/support system for moving them around. My plan is to set them up during the cool and cold months and then make them storeable during the summer. With this cart/support system I'll be able to do that. 

I do need to come up with a storage tank for heated water. I found a place that sells them for about $1.00 per gallon.  The largest I can get into the basement is about 200 gallons otherwise I'd have to enlarge the door opening to go larger. One could I suppose I could do 2 tanks that fit through the door but I think 200 gallons should be OK at least for starters. 

Heat produced and saved may not be enough during winter evening hours but what the heck, it is free heat and all I want to do is heat the garage to around 50 degrees.  I currently heat the garage with electric heaters to keep the master bedroom floor warm as the master bedroom is over the garage.  I'm figuring I can supplement the electric heat with the solar heat and reduce the electric bill for the electric portion.

I'm figuring I can plumb all this piping with plastic which should not be expensive and have nothing to lose, maybe less than $100.00 and some time.

I don't see why it couldn't work. 

During the summer I had the panels out in the sun and measured temps near 200 degrees at the headers. 

If I get this up and running in the coming months I'll let you know how I make out.

[Bill, KD0HG]

Thanks, Bob.

Actually, solar heat for domestic hot water is fairly common around here, but I have never seen a solar setup designed to act as an assist with a hot water heating system.

I'm cringing at what my latest propane bills have been! It's been nonstop ten to twenty degrees below normal here since November.

[W1RKW]

Bill,
I'm not actually going to integrate it into my existing heating system. It will be a separate heating system for the garage and basement, a separate zone if you want to think of it that way. 

I don't want to hack into my existing system.  I figure I have nothing to lose by messing around with what I have and supplementing some unheated areas with the solar panels. 

The basement gets down to around 50 degrees during mid winter.  The garage can get below freezing without heat but it is insulated as are the doors so using a small space heater and a homebrewed thermostat I can maintain 50 degrees during the dead of winter quite easily with a minor increase in the electric bill.  The heater doesn't work hard because of the insulation which is good. So I figure I can dump some heat from the panels into the garage and then with valves switch to the basement where the shack is and divert heat to that area.  That's my plan. Doing it is another story.

I see no reason why it couldn't work. I have 120sq. ft of solar panel which should transfer heat to a storage area without any trouble.  The back of my house which faces south has less square footage of glass compared to the solar panels yet the glass passes a large amount of heat during the winter.  The boiler never comes on when the sun is beating on the back of the house.  I have the thermostats set at 60 and the downstairs will be 68 with no trouble when the outside temp is in the teens or twenties.  So I figure with less glass area on the back of the house and the ability of the downstairs being comfortable I figure I can easily get 50 degrees for the garage or  more for basement with the solar panels which have more square footage.

Again, I have nothing to lose in experimenting and when I get the time to setup the system up I can report my findings.  I hope it will work.  I would love to reduce my commercial energy usage by heating areas that would not be normally heated. And hopefully that would convect into the rest of the house too. 

I'll keep everyone posted.
B