We filled Al Henrick's solar loop on Saturday night. Night is best to prevent steam from forming. The big delay was running the electric power to the pumps from a remote PV panel. Today was the first sunny day after filling and the system worked flawlessly. By the time I left around 1:30, standard time not daylight time, the tank was around 120 degrees F. The coldest water off the bottom of the tank was 114 degrees, and the heat exchanger was returning 124 degree water to the center of the tank. This was a cold start since the system had never run before, and the starting temperature was around 55-58 degrees.
It was interesting to listen to the pumps slow down and speed up as clouds reduced the output of the PV panel and then moved away. I worked on the insulation for a little while, and the tank rose from 84 degrees when I arrived around 11:00 standard time to the 114 degrees I mentioned earlier by the time I left. The storage tank holds 105 gallons, so this is a substantial rise in temperature. All we need to do now is finish up insulating the elbows and other fittings, and then install jacketing on the exterior insulation to protect it from UV rays and we are DONE!
Dan Michelsen
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