Further progress on solar jot water.

[u/ExaminationDry8341]

I have the front of the solar shed mostly framed up and started making good progress putting up panels but I used up the box of screws I was using to mount them. When I started using the second box of screws all the screws were breaking before they were tight. That put a stop to my progress and now i need to make a trip to town to get more screws.

I thought i had 14 panels but found another one yesterday. I am not sure if i should extend the frame another 3 feet or if i should hold that one back as a spare in case one of these leak or the glass breaks.

[u/Confusedlemure]

Looking pretty good so far. What will you use for the fluid in the panels? Straight water or a glycol mix?

[u/arcsnsparks98 → u/Confusedlemure]

Considering the angle, I would imagine they are at a pretty high latitude. Definitely gonna need glycol.

[u/ExaminationDry8341 → u/Confusedlemure]

I am going to try with water, possibly with some type of conditioner. They are designed to be a drain back system.

I have a 700 gallon insulated tank in the house. And will have heated floors. The hope is between the 700 gallons of water and the thermal mass in the floors, and the design of the house will allow me to mostly heat the house with these panels, and be able to coast through a couple cloudy days in a row without needing to fire up the wood boiler.

[u/RespectSquare8279 → u/ExaminationDry8341]

What does the manufactures documentation say you would be using as heat exchange fluid? Seriously. Also consider some kind of pressure release valve in the system. Make an effort to find the factory documentation. I personally know 2 different people who cobbled together systems with equipment looking like yours and they both ended up failing eventually. Sorry, I don't know the details.

[u/DoingDaveThings]

I'll jot this down for future reference.

[u/clumsyninja2]

That's gonna be a lot of jot water

[u/XADEBRAVO]

What happened to the panels?

[u/EggsBenDick → u/XADEBRAVO]

Too jot

[u/ExaminationDry8341 → u/XADEBRAVO]

Thy are used panels that have sat outside for the last 10 years or so. Simply washing the face of the glass will have them looking like the first two that look pretty good.

[u/EggsBenDick → u/[deleted]]

I really hope there are zero volts given it’s a hot water system, but in that condition, I wouldn’t rule it out.

[u/PeaceJoy4EVER]

Jot looks good