Great DIY Websites -- John Canivan's JC-Homes Website

This is part of the series on Great DIY Websites...
 
John Canivan JC-SolarHomes website is a good and extensive source of information for people who want to build solar heating projects.

The website has lots of articles that cover: solar collectors, solar heat storage, controls for solar systems, solar home design and lots of other renewable energy topics.  Lots of emphasis on how to build projects.

John and Richard Heiliger are the developers of the MTD (Modified Trickle Down) solar collector.

An MTD collector

John is also the founder of the very good Yahoo Solar Heat discussion group.  A good place to ask questions about (surprise) solar heating.

Gary

Great DIY Solar Web Sites -- Guy Marsden's ART TEC Website

I've started a new little section that provides links to some of my favorite DIY renewable energy websites.  All of these sites are the work of one individual, and they all show many innovative and practical ways to save energy and live a more sustainable life.

The first is Guy Marsden's ART-TEC website.

Guy is a multi-talented engineer and his extensive site covers many of his interests.
He has some very detailed how-to's that cover the design, building, and living with solar energy and energy conservation projects.  The projects include solar space heating, solar water heating, solar electricity, a solar lawn mower conversion, and quite a few conservation projects.  The projects are all carefully designed, and they all provide very detailed descriptions on how to build them.

Collectors for Guy's shop solar space heating system.

Guy and I have the same type of self installed micro-inverter PV systems, and we traded quite a few emails during the design and construction.  Since Guy was several months ahead of me on getting it built, most of the information flow benefited  me a lot more than Guy :)

The micro-inverter PV system being installed.

In addition to the energy related projects, Guy also does some beautiful artwork -- both furniture and some very innovative "paintings" from changing light patterns.

Cairo Sunset

The Home Page for Guy's site...


Gary

Saying Goodbye to the Jelly Bean Car

We bought a Prius back in 2005, and I've been noting the experiences with it over the past few years here...

It picked up the name Jelly Bean car after listening to Click and Clack on Car Talk trying to talk someone into buying a Prius, and him coming back with "but it looks like a jelly bean!".

A couple weeks ago we traded it in on a new Jelly Bean:

Our new 2010 Jelly Bean

The old Prius had 101K miles on it and was still doing fine -- it will very likely go another 100K miles for its new owner.  But, we decided to take advantage of the slump in car sales and get a new one while the prices are down a bit.

The new one (they call it a generation 3), does have some nice refinements -- quieter, a little more roomy, a little more comfortable, better fuel economy, better performance, ...  Nothing dramatic, but small improvements that add up.  Hope this one serves us as well as the old one did.

Some more thoughts here...

Gary

A Low Air Infiltration Pet Door

We had a blower door test recently, and one of the big air infiltration leaks in the house was our pet door.  The pet door leaked so badly that it had to be temporarily sealed off just to finish the blower door test.
This was a bit disappointing as we had paid extra for a double flap model that was supposed to provide good sealing.

While looking around for a good solution, I happened to read a blog on a new home that was being built in which they were enthused about the pet door they had installed.  It was a Freedom Pet Pass pet door, and in looking into it, it did seem like it might help with the air infiltration.

We ordered and installed one, and its been in use for couple months. We are quite happy with it.  It seals very well -- I cannot detect any air leakage even with a smoke pencil.   It also eliminates the problem we used to have with the flaps on the pet door banging noisily when it was windy.

The installation was a bit more involved than the other pet doors I've put in, but not that difficult, and the result is a near air leak free door.

The reason this door works better is the double magnetic seal that it employs.  It basically has one full magnetic seal for the dog going outside to inside direction, and a 2nd full magnetic seal for the dog going inside to outside.  This approach of using separate seals in each direction allows the use of face type magnetic seals with good contact area.

This shows the double magnetic seal arrangement.

View from the inside of the completed pet door.

The door does not include any "tunnel", so be prepared to frame in and trim the little tunnel through the wall.

While estimating energy saving for air infiltration improvements is very difficult, I had a very rough go at it and came up with about $30 per year in propane savings for our case.

Gary

Our Solar Heated Stock Tank In Mother Earth News!

The new issue of Mother Earth News (October 2010) has a full article on the solar heated stock tank we built for our neighbor's horses.

Lori and Kevin commissioning the new Solar Stock Tank

In cold climates, keeping the water in livestock tanks from turning into a solid block of ice can be a real challenge.  One common solution is to use an electric stock tank heater -- this works, but the down side is that with the typical uninsulated metal stock tanks the heat loss and energy uses are huge.  In our climate during cold weather, you can easily spend $3 a day in electricity just keeping a tank ice free.

The insulated tank enclosure with south glazing.

The Solar Stock Tank design encloses an ordinary galvanized stock tank in a well insulated box.  The south face of the box is double glazed with impact resistant polycarbonate glazing.  The south wall of the stock tank is painted black and absorbs the solar radiation quite efficiently.  The insulation and double glazing reduce nighttime heat loss.   The tank can be used without a heater in all but the most extreme weather.

Lori, Darby, and Princess.

Its a pretty straight forward DIY build.  The energy savings can pay back the cost of the tank materials in as little as a couple months.  There is also a large saving in CO2 emissions associated with not using the electric heater.

The online version of the Mother Earth News article...

Very detailed information on the tank construction and performance ...

Other DIY solar and efficient stock tanks people have sent into Build-It-Solar...

If you know of other tank designs, please let me know.

Gary

CO2 Released When Making or Using Products

I've been looking around for a simple source of information on what the CO2 emissions associated with using certain materials are.
The CO2List.org site is the best I have found so far for providing this kind of information in a usable format.

They offer this table that summarizes CO2 emissions associated with many materials and activities...

Small sample from the table.

If you know of other good sources for this kind of information, please let me know.

More references and calculators on CO2 emissions and energy use for activities...
(e.g. -- did you know that the QE2 gets 0.0075 mpg?)


Gary

Sandy's $1K Solar Water Heating System On Prince Edward Island

Sandy describes in detail his new $1K style solar water heating system. 

The collectors mounted to side of house.

The collectors use a unique horizontal riser arrangement that makes better use of the copper tubing for horizontal layouts.   The collector mounting to the house is by a hook and eye arrangement that makes for minimal impact on the siding.

The tank heat exchanger PEX coil being wound on a form to
space the coils out for better heat transfer.

Very nice tank arrangement -- looks a lot better than mine :)
Note the small SwiftTech pump mounted on the side -- uses only 18 watts.

The tank is very nicely done, and might be a good model for people who will have tanks located where they are visible and need to look good.  Sandy uses a 300 ft coil of 3/4 inch PEX for the heat exchanger, and took the time to rewind the coil for better separation of the individual coils to improve heat transfer.

All the details on Sandy's Solar Water Heating System...

Lots more DIY solar water heating system plans and examples...

This solar water heater is a part of Sandy's overall plan to reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions -- other parts include a new efficient boiler for space heating, upgraded insulation, a Prius, and more efficient appliances -- maybe we can talk Sandy into a report on how the whole program effects their energy use.

Gary

Philip's Fiji Island DIY Thermosyphon Solar Water Heater

Philip lives on the beautiful Pacific island of Fiji, where the scenery is stunning, but the utility rates are on the high side.

This picture just knocks me out -- wonder if Fiji needs another solar guy?

 
Philip worked out a nice and simple warm climate thermosyphon solar water heating system.    The system is very simple: no pumps, no heat exchangers, no differential controllers, no anti-freeze.   Just a PVC storage tank located above the collector, and the thermosyphon effect does all the rest.

The PVC solar heated water storage tank.

The thermosyphon collector.

The total cost was only $250 US.

Philip provides the details on how he designed and built the thermosyphon system...

Much more on DIY solar water heaters for climates from the Artic to Fiji...

 Gary  September 20, 2010

A Large Solar Space and Water Heating System in Iowa

This is a very nicely done system by Thom that provides both solar domestic water heating and solar space heating.

The 200 sqft, homemade collector with twinwall glazing.

This is a drain back system with the 300 gallon heat storage and drain back tank located about 50 ft from the collectors in the house.  When the sun is off the collector and the circulation pump is not running, the water in the collector drains back to the tank in the house for freeze protection.

The collectors are modeled after the $1K Solar Water Heater design in which aluminum fins are thermally bonded to copper pipes.  This design provides 96% of the performance of commercial collectors at 1/5th the price.

Thom bonding collector fins to copper tubes.

The lines between the collector and the heat storage tank are run in a trench through the yard.  As the picture shows, the pipes are packaged up in XPS styrofoam insulation to reduce heat loss.

Insulated pipes going into the heat transfer trench.

The tank is an EPDM lined and well insulated plywood box.   It holds about 300 gallons.  While this kind of design may initially give you some pause, it is a well proven design that goes back to the 1980's and has a very good track record. 

Thom is using the system for both domestic water preheating and for space heating.  The domestic water preheat is accomplished by running the cold water supply through a 300 ft coil of PEX pipe that is immersed in the tank.  This is a very effective preheat system that is 100% efficient for most water demands, as the water in the pipe gets preheated to full tank temperature.  A 2nd copper pipe coil heat exchanger supplies water for space heating to a radiant floor.  Depending on the details of the plumbing, it may not be necessary to use the copper pipe coil -- some have just pumped hot water directly from the tank, through the radiant floor and them back to the tank.

The EPDM lined tank with the two heat exchanger coils.

 All in all, quite a nice system :)
Thanks to Thom for documenting it so well.


I feel a bit of a part of this system myself, as Thom and I exchanged a record number of emails during the project.  Its really nice to see it up and running :)

Thom experienced some start-up difficulties with the system, and I have to admire the way he handled working through these -- things don't always go smoothly, and after putting quite a bit of effort into building a system, it takes some real discipline to work your way through unexpected start-up problems.  Thom has done a good job of documenting these.

All the details on the system on Thom's website...

Similar systems on Build-It-Solar...

Gary

Greg's Pop-Can Solar Air Heating Collector

Greg's solar air heating collector uses recycled aluminum soda pop cans for the absorber. The pop cans have the tops and bottoms drilled out, and are assembled into vertical columns that the air passes through. 
In operation, the black painted soda pop cans are heated by the sun, warming the air that is flowing up through the cans.

Greg's finished pop-can collector

 A manifold at the bottom evenly distributes room air to all the can columns, and a similar manifold at the top of the collector collects the heated air for distribution back to the room.

Lots of cans!

The combination of uniform air distribution to the whole collector and the large amount of heat transfer area from the cans to the air makes for an efficient collector. Greg's collector also uses Twinwall polycarbonate glazing -- this is a type of double glazing that reduces heat loss and increases the efficiency of the collector.

Detail of upper manifold.

 Greg sent in a very detailed (22 page) description of the full construction process with lots of pictures.

All the details on Greg's pop-can solar air heating collector here...

Thanks very much to Greg for documenting and sending in this project!

Lots more solar space heating projects here...

Gary