Illustrations US Hot Springs | HSE Home Page | Build your own Hot Tub A Solar Hot Water Primer - Ken Olson ©2001 Ken OlsonThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Go to Sidebar 1, Maintain Temperature Stratification in Your Tank Go to Sidebar 2, Rust Never Sleeps: Open Loop vs. Closed Loop Hot water represents the second largest energy consumer in American households. An investment in a solar water heating system will beat the stock market any day, any decade, risk free. In this article I'm going to cover the most common options for solar water heating, basic principles of operation, and some historical perspective on what has worked and what has not. Below: A Typical Solar Flat Plate Water Heater. A Checkered Past, A Bright Future Solar thermal's past is a good example of why everyone should be skeptical of government involvement in energy. The intention was to stimulate sales for solar thermal systems. The solar thermal industry has been purged of the tax credit telemarketers and overnight experts. Turn the thermostat down. Caution!
$350 Solar Heated Hot Tub Search The Renewable Energy site for Do-It-Yourselfers Brian's Description: Here's some info on my project. I didn't take many pictures, but the construction is pretty basic. I framed the collector box with 2"x6" lumber and 1/4" plywood, the size is about 26" x 8'. The pump came from Lowes and is the Garden Treasures MD170 fountain pump. We are real happy with our choice of the 150 gallon Rubbermaid stock tank for our tub. I am using 3 sheets of the 3/4" blue Styrofoam for the tank cover. I did spend about $400 on this project, but did already have some of the materials. Tank $120 Pump 30 Urethane ins 90 (with shipping) sheet insulation 50 CPVC 75 I had most of the wood already, used sections of a old water hose between tank and collector, with pool noodles for insulation. I'm sure I left out some details, so feel free to ask questions. Brian And, the this note on performance from Brian: Was in the hot tub last night at 110 deg, still 106 tonight without running it today.
Plans For Various Passive Solar Heaters The Do It Yourself Passive Solar Window Heater How To Make A Passive Solar Heater. This is a very simple and inexpensive project. There are many passive solar heating projects out there, but we must admit, we were very sceptical at first. In the cold November mornings, what help can a simple bit of styrofoam and aluminum foil really provide? So we decided to make one and see how well it works. How this works: When the sun shines, the black painted area will absorb the heat from the suns rays. Make your own passive solar window heater Paint your solar heater black Homemade passive solar window heater in action In the photos above you can see the homemade passive solar window heater. First choose a south facing window and measure the window frame and decide if you want to cover the window completely or not with your solar heater. Cover the backing with aluminum foil on one side. Take the whole thing outside on a warm day and spray paint it all black. Pros and cons of this design.
Rocket Stove The Rocket Stove is a variety of wood-burning cooking stove. It is easy to construct, with low-cost materials. These are low-mass stoves designed to burn small pieces of wood very efficiently. Cooking is done on top of a short insulated chimney. Rocket Stoves use branches, twigs, small wood scraps, or just about any small combustible material. A related design, the Rocket Bread Oven, is constructed using two 55 gallon drums, one inside the other. Rocket Stoves operates roughly twice as efficiently, and substantially more cleanly, than the open fire cooking methods still used in many areas of the world. Because these qualities improve local air quality, and discourage deforestation, the rocket stove has attracted the attention of a number of Appropriate Technology concerns, which have deployed it in numerous third-world locales (notably, the Rwandan refugee camps). Key features Edit Problems Alternatives/Variations Sierra Zip Stove Edit Two-Door Rocket Stove Wood Pellet Camp and Survival Stove
7 Solar Water Heating System Designs by Michael Hackleman (Rob Harlan is a general and solar contractor with 25 years of experience with solar water heating systems in Mendocino County, California. Rob primarily designs and installs photovoltaic systems today.) MH: Rob, will you give a brief history of the last 30 years of solar-water heating system design and implementation? Rob: Solar-water heating systems got a real boost in the 1970s when tax credits were offered by state and federal programs to help folks make the investment. These systems were intended primarily for domestic hot water, i.e., showers, dishwashing, cooking, and clotheswashing. They were also popular for heating the water in pools and hot tubs. MH: As I recall, a lot of manufacturers also disappeared when the tax credits went away. Rob: Some designs were indeed flawed—poorly implemented, overly complex, or incorporating untested ideas. Rob: And—on active systems, a controller turns a pump on and off as solar heat is available. Rob: Freezing protection. Rob: True. 1. 2. 3.
Build a Wood-burning Cookstove From a Steel Barrel by W. Wayne Robertson from the November/December, 2004 issue of Countryside & Small Stock Journal Many people are familiar with wood heaters made from steel barrels. This is a description of how to make a wood cook stove from a barrel. An effort has been made to keep it simple so that you will not need special skills like welding or forging. The only tools needed are a drill, a jigsaw (with hacksaw blade), tape measure, and simple hand tools. ... Radiant Floor Heating - Radiant Floor Heating, Underfloor Heating, Radiant Ceiling Heating, In Slab Heating - CBS Radiant Heating Systems Radiant Floor Heating: Safe-t-FLEX Heating Foil Safe-t-FLEX cabron film heating roll Safe-t-FLEX: The ultimate radiant floor heating solution and underfloor heating technology. Radiant Floor Heating is the new, easy, way to install comfortable underfloor heating. Safe-t-FLEX is a new type of thin electric heating foil - just 0.3 mm - with a unique design that makes it very easy to install. The radiant floor heating foil is dispatched in a roll ready for "on site cutting to size", slim crimp connectors are used for attaching the wires. Safe-t-FLEX radiant floor heating: A good choice for your home Safe-t-FLEX is a reliable product that heats well over two million square metres of flooring around Europe. Ideal for new buildings and renovation Safe-t-FLEX is ideal for new buildings as the radiant floor heating foil can be laid directly on the floor surface or preferably on 3-6mm foam underlay. Ideal for installing under timber floors Wiring up the power to the Safe-t-FLEX carbon film
Our Rocket Stove Editor’s note: we have a new design for a portable rocket stove here. Low-tech is the new high-tech, and the best example of the low-tech revolution is the miraculous rocket stove–a stove that makes it possible to cook with small twigs–no logs needed! Best of all rocket stoves are easy to build. We liked the idea so much that we decided to build a permanent one just off our back deck for entertaining and as a backup to our gas stove should an emergency take out our utilities. The rocket stove was developed for use in poor nations where wood used for cooking has led to the vast, wholesale, deforestation of large swaths of the earth’s surface. Rocket stoves can be built out of metal or masonry and consist of a L shaped tube, at the bottom of which you place your wood. Before we built the rocket stove we considered making a cob oven, a mud domed wood fired oven in which you can cook bread and pizza. Here’s the materials we used: little smoke except during start up.
Heat recovery ventilation Energy recovery ventilators (ERVs) are closely related, however ERVs also transfer the humidity level of the exhaust air to the intake air. Benefits[edit] As building efficiency is improved with insulation and weather stripping, buildings are intentionally made more airtight, and consequently less well ventilated. Since all buildings require a source of fresh air, the need for HRVs has become obvious. While opening a window does provide ventilation, the building's heat and humidity will then be lost in the winter and gained in the summer, both of which are undesirable for the indoor climate and for energy efficiency, since the building's HVAC systems must compensate. HRV introduces fresh air to a building and improves climate control, whilst promoting efficient energy use. UK building regulations require one air change every two hours (0.5 ACH). Technology[edit] HRVs and ERVs can be stand-alone devices that operate independently, or they can be built-in, or added to existing HVAC systems.