Hi i Am doing some reserch into different alternative heating products and was woundering if anyone had any suggestions for me. My situation is we live in sydney and need a second heat source to help heat our home. I have heard about some solar options with low running cost and am asking if anyone can shed some light on this for us ??????
Alternative Solar Heating
(9 posts) (6 voices)-
I have installed a soar hydronic heating system at my house on the Central Coast. Because of space constrictions I modified 2 evacuated tube collector racks and installed in total 38 evacuated tubes on a vertical wall. They are connected to a 500 L water tank which in turn feeds two hydronic heating panels.
I would not do it again this way. Because of the design of the house I had to install about 30 m of copper pipe on the collector side and 30 m of PEX pipe on the the heating panel side. The PEX had to be installed within the crawling space of the house which was about the worst work I ever did. Not only had I to crawl in through a narrow winding channel and a hole about 40 by 40 cm, but I spent the best of two working days on my belly (no room to crawl on my knees) in a dirty, dusty and most likely asbestos infested confined space. I told my wife she should check on me every half hour and if I don't reply she should first call a builder to cut a hole into our timber floor to get me out and then the ambulance. While under the house, I had plenty to time to ponder why I studied for so many years when I am spending so much time in this misery.
Well and after all, the performance of the system is not great. Because of the vertical installation of the tubes I do not catch as much sun as I could. And the water tank is brought down to low temperatures within about 2 to 3 hours of heating because large single glass windows and doors and uninsulated walls and floor have a lot of heat loss.
What I learned the hard way is that I need to give a better insulation to our living room first to minimize the heating energy required. And I will not touch again DIY hydronic heating as pluming is very labour intensive and critical because it must be permanently leak free.
My next heating project is hot air heating using evacuated tubes and thermal storage inside the tubes (patent pending). There is no issue with leaks and the air ducts from the collector to the living room are just about 2 m long as the collector can be placed just above the living room.
At the moment it is still in a very experimental stage with a number of unresolved detail issues, but it looks promising.
I am trying to establish a ATA subbranch or something similar on the Central coast in order to discuss projects like that. Participants are very welcome.
Posted Saturday 24 Mar 2012 @ 1:17:13 am from IP # -
Russell Moore
MemberThe simplest solar heating device we have is an attached glasshouse on the north of the house. It works sans any power, using thermal convection to feed hot air into the house via a large open sliding glass door. The best investment we ever made for clean cheap heating.
In summer we cover it and the rest of the north facing paved verandah with shade mesh.Posted Saturday 24 Mar 2012 @ 4:42:24 am from IP # -
TonyT
Members2s
HYDROPONIC HORRORS
My knees are over-calloused
For I too have been zealous
Kneeling as in prayer to Gods divine.My worship is for heating
With hydronics through the ceiling
But a jealous God demands a lot of time !My worship place is dusty
And rat droppings make it musty
(for its carpet's made from rat-shit over time)I’m breathing insulation
And am resigned with expectation
That they’ll itch, these arms so bare of mine.If ever this job’s finished
We’ll do winter with a flourish
With comfort and good warmth all winter longWhen pipes are quietly humming
With hot water gently running
I’ll change tune and then start singing happy songs !Posted Sunday 25 Mar 2012 @ 2:46:31 am from IP # -
andy99
MemberHey guys I Have been speaking with the boys from Ecoheat and there system looks good. it is using fresh air to heat the home during all daylight hours. They are in sydney too. Has anybody had any experience with them in the past they seem very professional, but your advice would be great.
Posted Monday 26 Mar 2012 @ 1:57:39 am from IP # -
Do you have an idea about the cost of a system?
The disadvantage is that there is no heat storage. So the only way to heat 'solar' during the evening with this system is to overheat during the day in order to use furniture and walls as heat storage.
Posted Monday 26 Mar 2012 @ 6:46:12 am from IP # -
ferylberyl
MemberHey guys and girls.
I'm in Central Victoria and opted (due to lack of finances mainly) for the Solarventi. To call it a heater is a bit optimistic, but once installed it uses no power as it has it's own solar panel built in to operate the fan. I have the SV14 with the vent inlet in the lounge room (almost centre of house).
My house is about 75 square metres. With the exception of the loo I don't close any internal doors during the day and have large North facing windows in the lounge and spare room to assist with heating when the sun shines.
The Solarventi does very little of a morning other than bring in fresh, not as cold as outside, air without the need to have windows open. By the time I get home from work about 5pm the house is somewhere around 5 degrees warmer than it would otherwise be, depending on how thick the cloud cover is. On really dull days the Solarventi may not work all.
Whilst as previously mentioned it is not that flash as a heater, it does help for someone like myself who is too mean to turn the heater on until after dark. Also the fact of getting fresh dry air into the house during winter, without the need to have windows open to let out what precious little heat there already is in the house, is great in my opinion.
As someone who doesn't start work until 2pm I was hoping it would do a little more to warm the house of a morning.
Having said that, I'm not sorry I have it. There are no ongoing costs which is always a bonus!Posted Tuesday 27 Mar 2012 @ 1:55:07 am from IP # -
Ferylberyl, the Solarventi designed specifically for house heating is the bigger SV30. You would find a massive difference between it and the SV14. I have an SV30 and the other consideration which is immeasurable is that my house is much dryer and is much easier to heat as result of the dryness brought on by the Solarventi. (You don't have to heat the additional moisture in the air). In respect to thermal storage, looking at thermal materials, I have ceramic floor tiles and brick veneer, I find that on cold mornings or overcast days, the house maintains a constant warmth over and above external temps. The house and its materials acts as a thermal store. I do not use any other form of heating except on extreme drop n temps(rare) and then I use my beautiful bio-ethanol fireplace, the house heats up in minutes. These are fantastic and so clean to run.
The biggest problem that new single glazed panel systems incur is that on a cool dew morning, the internals fog/dew up with moisture, when the fan starts running, this moisture only goes one way- straight into your house increasing the humidity level.
I hope this helps.Posted Wednesday 28 Mar 2012 @ 12:09:08 pm from IP #
