Rich Palmisano
Just a fiddler at heart...
I constructed a DIY radiant heater using 3/4" PEX water tubing, standard metal framing, 2" rigid residential poly insulation and double pane insulated greenhouse glazing. The box itself weighs less than 30 lbs complete. The goal for the project was to create a a heater capable of producing hot water at in the 100-120 degrees F range, connect to heater to the discharge and return side of my pool pump and move approximately 1000 galllons of heated water a day into the pool.
The heater itself can get to 200 degrees inside in good sun, which is enough to damage the tubing so it needs to run with water flowing to prevent this. It can produce the hot water and it did! But being stationary, it only produced peak hot water for about 2-4 hours. So my goal of 1000 gallons a day was cut to about 150-300 gallons on a bright sunny day.
So...being small enough...
I beefed up the frame of the panel itself to be able to mount it on a tracker.
I built a DIY tracker to mount it on. The tracker is a simple 2-axis system with linear actuators, made from lumber, a couple bearings for the east west axis, all bolted and set on a 4x4 post mount anchored in concrete. It's rock solid. The tracker was a kit purchased on ebay, dual axis and actuators. A little difficult to program properly but it works very well. The system has a small 10w solar panel that feeds to a cheap MPPT....(not MPPT...this is a PWM) charge controller that keeps the small 12v 4AH SLA battery charged. The battery runs the tracker module and controls the actuators.
The challenge was, and may still be, a moving panel with water lines. I used a 1/2" flex connector to handle the east/west/north/south movements of the panel and it seems to be working well and not kinking the supply, though I am concerned with the longevity of that component with constant flexing of the tubing.
Photos included: Note that the collector is covered. Keeping the sun off the panel while plumbing work was being done to prevent pipe damage.
The heater itself can get to 200 degrees inside in good sun, which is enough to damage the tubing so it needs to run with water flowing to prevent this. It can produce the hot water and it did! But being stationary, it only produced peak hot water for about 2-4 hours. So my goal of 1000 gallons a day was cut to about 150-300 gallons on a bright sunny day.
So...being small enough...
I beefed up the frame of the panel itself to be able to mount it on a tracker.
I built a DIY tracker to mount it on. The tracker is a simple 2-axis system with linear actuators, made from lumber, a couple bearings for the east west axis, all bolted and set on a 4x4 post mount anchored in concrete. It's rock solid. The tracker was a kit purchased on ebay, dual axis and actuators. A little difficult to program properly but it works very well. The system has a small 10w solar panel that feeds to a cheap MPPT....(not MPPT...this is a PWM) charge controller that keeps the small 12v 4AH SLA battery charged. The battery runs the tracker module and controls the actuators.
The challenge was, and may still be, a moving panel with water lines. I used a 1/2" flex connector to handle the east/west/north/south movements of the panel and it seems to be working well and not kinking the supply, though I am concerned with the longevity of that component with constant flexing of the tubing.
Photos included: Note that the collector is covered. Keeping the sun off the panel while plumbing work was being done to prevent pipe damage.
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