This weekend I made the connection between the solar tower's hot water system and the house plumbing system. Shark bite fittings and PEX pipe made the transition.


Just inside the the house is where the water supply to one of the west bathroom sinks comes up. This is where I spliced in the hot and cold lines from the tower.

I am still working on threading through the dedicated dishwasher connection (the x-hot, unregulated supply). I have it about 80% threaded through the dust and spiders and insulation under the house. Thus it is not yet connected in this photo.

With the connections live, I filled the system and let it begin to heat in the sun. Saturday was hazy and the water never got hot enough by the end of the day. I finished insulating the remainder of the pipe that were slated to get insulation.


Today I spent much of the day threading this heat tape onto the lower collector headers. I should have done this *before* the lower tank was installed. Somehow I thought I'd have more working room than I ended up with. It was a painstaking process involving contortions and fishing the tape through the many twists behind the lower tank with a makeshift reacher consisting of a nail on a stick, and a long-handled pliers. But I persevered and it's on.


Late this afternoon the hot water coming off the top of the collectors and entering the upper tank was about 103 degrees. I thought that might not be quite hot enough for a shower, but after grubbing around under the house all afternoon, I took a shower using that water anyway. Hot enough! Maybe two or three more degrees would be perfect, but that gas hot water heater is now turned off and will stay off except for occasions when I need more or hotter water than the solar system will produce.

I am W00t!

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Update:
Today I completed the extension of the PEX waterline to the dishwasher location and connected it at the other end. It just needs the adapter to the dishwasher water line.


I got back to installing the low voltage distribution panel, getting it mounted with the necessary cutouts to interface with the existing solar control panel and the battery load balancer unit.


Next up is the installation of the blower fan that will siphon hot air off the top of the tower and distribute it into the house. This will run off the low voltage system, so getting that system up and running is prerequisite.

Labels: San Pedro homestead