phc february 2011
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GREEN SYSTEMS
| SOLAR SOLUTIONS | CONTINUED FROM PAGE 62 water tank. When that was depleted, the condensing boiler would kick in. When the solar collectors were eventually installed both wood and propane usage was reduced significantly, and more heat was stored in the mass floors by the control system. The two-pipe, primary- loop connections allowed each heating device to be easily installed and controlled in a modular way over time.
Example: “Waste” heat from a generator. An off-grid home built around 2007 near Cerrillos,
N.M. gets most of its electricity, which is stored in batteries, from photovoltaic panels. During extreme weather, an Onan generator fires up (on propane) to recharge the batteries when the solar cannot supply all the electrical needs in the home. This house was built from the ground up with solar heated warm mass floors, solar hot water and condensing boilers. When we realized (in 2009) that most of the propane heat from the generator was heating the great outdoors in winter, we decided to capture it. The top rubber hose on the automotive-style radiator was diverted to a stacked-plate heat exchanger. This allowed the automotive “water pump” in the engine to pump hot antifreeze from the engine through the heat exchanger before returning to the engine. The heat exchanger was treated like a solar collector, with controls that pumped heat away from the
engine into the primary loop whenever the engine was hot enough. In this way, the “waste heat” from the propane burned by the generator is allowed to contribute to heating the floors, the DHW and even the swimming pool. The primary loop in this home was connected in a similar configuration to the labels shown in Figure 31-2.
Final notes These articles are targeted toward residential and small
commercial buildings smaller than ten thousand square feet. The focus is on pressurized glycol/hydronic systems, since these systems can be applied in a wide variety of building geometries and orientations with few limitations. Brand names, organizations, suppliers and manufacturers are mentioned in these articles only to provide examples for illustration and discussion and do not constitute any recommendation or endorsement. ;
Bristol Stickneyhas been designing, manufacturing,
repairing and installing solar hydronic heating systems for more than 30 years. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and is a licensed mechanical contractor in New Mexico. He is the chief technical officer for SolarLogic LLC in Santa Fe, N.M. Visit www
.solarlogicllc.com for more information. SOFTWARE APPLICATIONS
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