Thinking of adding Solar water heater to home.

[Mark42]

My house is heated by an oil furnace running a hot water baseboard system on 4 zones. House was built in 1992, so it has moderately good insulation, could use some more in attic. With the price of heating oil this year, and guessing that it will never really return to low pricing, I am looking into solar heating add-ons. Does anyone use them? Do they reduce the cost of heating significantly?

I live in north New Jersey near Pennsylvania where temps can drop into the -10 or -20's for days at a time. I don't see us moving from this house for many years. So anything to help offset the heating cost would be a plus.

 

[penst8grad]

Re: Thinking of adding Solar water heater to home.

Hi Mark. I'm in the same boat , except my house was built in the 1800's and the only insulation is what I put in it. My boiler is ancient (1976) too.

I installed an electric water heater so that I could shut down the boiler during the summer. Normally I shut it down in winter so that the boiler provides hot water too. This year I left it on since I have figured that hot water is the 2nd biggest energy use in our home and if oil is more than $1.78/gal it is cheaper to heat with electric.

Now the furnace seems to run very infrequently, but we haven't had the VERY cold nights yet.

If you are planning to stay for a long time solar may be worth the effort. This page has a cost analysis for heating and PV panels. It's worth a look.

I hope to move, so I'm not going to bite the bullet.

 

[1730V]

Re: Thinking of adding Solar water heater to home.

My last house had solar water heat. It worked quite well but it does not freeze where I live. I do not know how you would get around that issue. I never ran out of hot water partly because it was an 80 gallon tank.

The system was very ingenious. There was a "collector" on the roof that heated the water that was pumped up there from the heater. The heater had a small "keep warm" electric element.

The collector was about 10 feet wide and 3 feet tall. I've seen others that were shaped differently. It faced due south to catch sun all day. It even heated water on overcast days, just not as fast.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Thinking of adding Solar water heater to home.

ok, i'm from the south, but did a lot of research in the past as a home builder. you are using a recycling pump from the furnace thru the zones, and back to the tank, at the present time. the collectors may pick up some heat during the day light hours, as the water circulates from the zone up to the collector, but at night, and freezing days, i don't beleive you will achieve enough to justify the price of equipment and installation. actually, i beleive you water from collector will be colder than it was when it left the zone.

you can't bypass the collectors at night or freezing as they will freeze. the only way to prevent that is to dump the water in the collector, and have a bypass valve. then you have to refill the collector.

 

[JRJ]

Re: Thinking of adding Solar water heater to home.

We built a house in the early '80s with solar hot water. It worked well in the summer and sunny winter days. 84 gal 240v solar electric water tank. The problem was, on cold winter nights, the water circulated through the panels to keep them from freezing. Of course that was unacceptable, so we drained the collectors and used the $$$electric. I'm sure the systems are vastly improved from the '80s. We are two houses after that one, and wouldn't spend the money on solar again where there is the possibility of freezing. Good luck.

 

[1730V]

Re: Thinking of adding Solar water heater to home.

We built a house in the early '80s with solar hot water. It worked well in the summer and sunny winter days. 84 gal 240v solar electric water tank. The problem was, on cold winter nights, the water circulated through the panels to keep them from freezing. Of course that was unacceptable, so we drained the collectors and used the $$$electric. I'm sure the systems are vastly improved from the '80s. We are two houses after that one, and wouldn't spend the money on solar again where there is the possibility of freezing. Good luck.

That's what I was thinking. Freezing is an issue.

 

[Mark42]

Re: Thinking of adding Solar water heater to home.

The system I am inserested in is a closed loop system with antifreeze. The solar collectors heat up water in a 80 gallon or so sized tank, and inside the taink is a copper coil that circulates water from the heating system. Heat is transferred from the closed loop tank to the baseboard system.

The bad news is the solar collectors can not heat the water hot enough to run baseboard heaters (180-200*). The collectors can heat water up to about 120*, which will work fine for radiant heat systems in floors.

So I'm SOL with my baseboard system. I could take the 120* water ahd run through a radiator and blow air through it to add btu's to the living area that way, but it would not be well distributed.

Either way, the collectors can only add btu's to your house during daylight hours, because the size of the water tank to hold enough heat to heat the house at night would be the size of a tanker truck

So, I'll invest in some more insulation for the attic.

 

[treedancer]

Re: Thinking of adding Solar water heater to home.

Don?t know how much wood you have available but this is an option that my neighbor has installed, he is satisfied with it. I?ll provide a link don?t know if it will thru but will try. (CENTRAL BOILER, INC.)



<Can I heat my domestic water with the Classic? Yes, with the use of a domestic water heating kit. Most people find they save between $30 and $60 a month.>

<Can I connect the Classic to a pressurized heating system? Yes, in one of two ways. By connecting it directly to the existing system and depressurizing it or by the use of a water-to-water heat exchanger the heat can be transferred from one system to the other.>


http://www.centralboiler.com/faq.html

 

[1730V]

Re: Thinking of adding Solar water heater to home.

Mark,

One of the biggest energy drainers, in a home, is the hot water heater. The system you describe would be great for hot water. 120 degrees is more than enough for that.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Thinking of adding Solar water heater to home.

Mark we use a system here, that is as good as the solar panels, for hot water heaters. very similar to what you are talking about.

the air conditioning condenser units, have an add on, that circulates the hot freon, thru the water heaters, during the summer months, cutting water heating cost in summer to nothing, with an 80 gallon tank.

 

[MikDee]

Re: Thinking of adding Solar water heater to home.

Hey Mark, you must live near me in North Jersey?,,, Milford Pa. is just a stones throw across the Deleware river bridge from NJ on Rte# 206. I'm in the suburbs about 9miles north of Milford village, and the rest of my family lives on Long Island where I grew up.

By the way, if your electric is cheap enough an electric HW heater is pretty efficient, if not, a propane HW heater is best, Also, a wood, or propane fireplace, may help cut heating bills in this area, or a propane ventless space heater (1 room heater) as an alternative. I'm not "Grisly Adams", too old, & out of shape, to be gathering wood for the homestead, so I have a propane fireplace as an alternate source of heat.

 

[ANIMAL]

Re: Thinking of adding Solar water heater to home.

Dad tried solar air heat to help out the fire place and propane furness and it was a waist of money. But this was a long time ago and there were a lot of rip offs and not so good ideas out there. Untill last winter I was getting by with an electric heater in a travel trailer. But it rairly got below freezeing {norhteasteren Oklahoma}.....ANIMAL

 

[beerrun]

Re: Thinking of adding Solar water heater to home.

Stacking firewood is a PITA. Its dirty, heavy, and the house smells like smoke all winter.

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You probably wouldnt go through this much, but I am so over the woodstove even if it does heat the whole house. We go through 10 cords a winter plus one tank of fuel oil. Your house being MUCH more efficient than mine, one or two cords would probably keep you warm all winter. We have a propane heater in the barn and I am not totally impressed with that either.Try looking into pellet stoves. Ive heard good things about them.
My house was built in 1790, we have the original doors, windows and siding. I have learned to put my feet up on the sofa when watching TV(keep them off the floor), let the hot water run for a few minutes before getting in the shower, and cats and dogs make excellent foot warmers. Theres also a whole system of which doors need to stay closed,and which rooms we can close off and do without for the winter. So dont feel so bad. It could be worse.

 

[Caveman Charlie]

Re: Thinking of adding Solar water heater to home.

They have come a long way with solar heat since the 80's. I suggest you look into a couple of magazines. One is called "Home Power". it's more for people making there own electricity but, it has articles and links to other places. Also there is "Mother Earth News" It covers people that are trying to live more environmental conscious life styles and such. It's a good magazine with lots of tips on heating, cooling, gardening and other things.

You might also just want to do some zone heating of you home with hot air solar collectors. There easy to install.

 

[Caveman Charlie]

Re: Thinking of adding Solar water heater to home.

radiantsolar.com

 

[penst8grad]

Re: Thinking of adding Solar water heater to home.

I mentioned adding the electric water heater earlier and forgot this...

My coworker got a stove 2 years ago to supplement his electric heat. It uses bagged coal, has no dust, and doesn't smell. I was totally against coal until we visited his house, no I'd get one if there was room in my house. Definetly not our grandfathers' coal stove anymore. You could touch the stove itself and not get burned, which is a plus with kids in the house.

Anyway, he got it here: http://www.leisurelinestoves.com/ . The model he got has an optional water loop just for basebard heating. There are some nice pictures on the products page.

 

[Turin]

Re: Thinking of adding Solar water heater to home.

Hi Mark.

I installed an electric water heater so that I could shut down the boiler during the summer. Normally I shut it down in winter so that the boiler provides hot water too. This year I left it on since I have figured that hot water is the 2nd biggest energy use in our home and if oil is more than $1.78/gal it is cheaper to heat with electric.

.

Why not heat with gas (earth gas) thats much cheeper eaven compared to electric.