This was a truncated work weekend, being that the holiday straddled the bulk of it. Also I had to do some furnace repairs on Momcat's furnace (thermocouple went bad, and then the fan motor froze up.) Still between a couple hours each on Saturday and Sunday afternoon and today, I got some stuff done.

I finished extending the hot, hot! and cold lines down to the bottom of the tower...


...and terminated them where I will switch to PEX and sharkbite fittings:

I drilled holes through the base of the tower and into the house to run the PEX. As it turns out I need to get three 90 degree sharkbite fittings to install right inside the house wall to meet up with the nearest hot and cold water pipes. So I stopped on that part of the project for this weekend.

I got started installing the pipe insulation over the collector system pipes:


The insulation that will be exposed to the sun got a black pipe tape wrap as well:


Next week I will install these heat tapes on the bottom manifolds. My hope is that I can reduce the number of nights I need to drain down the panels by heating the bottom manifold this way. Otherwise any night below freezing (which is most nights in December and January), I'd need to drain the panels in the evening and refill them in the morning.