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Solar heating?


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Hi, I am planing a fish room and thinking of solar water heating. I was thinking of some solar panels from a Solahart and using the heated water to heat the room either by colomn heaters or pipe work in the concrete slab. I have a few ideas on how it would work but wanted to know if anyone has tried this and what results. Also any input on how to set up. I was thinking of a thermostat to control it and heaters in the tanks as back up. If I was clever it could also back up the home hot water. Thanks Peter.

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Your idea will work,, but only as a bonus supplement beneficial.

There are better ways of using the sun though.

The peak cold seasons you'll need heating at night.

And plenty of times the sun won't be enough over all.

You need to set up a primary heating source using gas or electricity the best you can putting solar heating aside to start with.

The solar heating you set up as a secondary source will subtract the use of gas or electricity (primary source), when it's able to,,, this will naturally work for you via correct thermostat settings.

I've researched this avenue a lot.

Using solar energy for heating is best exchanging the heat directly into water as it retains heat better than the air where it easily escapes.

Heating the slab is to heat the air and a lot of waiste will occur.

I see you've derived your idea from a green house setting,,, where heat needed is subtle and not needed at a constant.

So a method hard to beat : ???

Solar evacuated tubes. (solar vac). Even works on overcast days !!!

You'd have the SV set up on roof or ground.

SV units are smaller in relation to our solar hot water panels when comparing same outputs.

So, the SV feeding hot water into a insulated water tank with a pressure/heat release valve that is in constant circulation.

Between the line of water feeding from the water tank back to the SV unit it is run into the breed room that runs through a tight coil submersed in the centrifugal sump.

This coil you have made up is what is called a heat exchanger as the SV is itself.

A thermostat would cut the flow into the breed room and continue the circulation between the water tank and SV unit.

The SV would be a supplement, but the main primary heating choice thermostat would be set one or two degrees less than the setting of the SV unit.

So if the heat is needed and the SV isn't able to produce, then the primary source simply kicks in.

Hope its not to hard to understand.

Solar vacs are used in freeze over continents like Asia and America where our solar techniques are regarded as rubbish.

SV units are easily purchased in oz.

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Hi, I was planing to use it to cut down the cost of heating using a second hand water heater. With good insulation and in tank heaters so some tanks could run a little hotter if needed. I am surprised no one has'nt tried this as I was hoping to get some feedback. I will be looking into the ideas from buccal, its a bit more high tech than I was thinking. I got lost reading it, might try and draw it to get a better idea.

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I think you would need to weigh up the cost of moving the water ie pumping it through the system and the cost of heating it in a more traditional way.

Personally I think a well insulated room and a electric heater would still be cheaper long term option.

I am unsure of your location but were I am I use no heating in summer and really only need it for 2-3 months in winter. The heat given off by pump motors the rest of the year is enough to keep my room at 26 degrees. Solar would be most effective at this time and would be of no use to me as I can't store that heat to use later on.

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Insulation, insulation, insulation, this is what makes the biggest difference,, so don't over look it to begin with and get lost in the creativeness.

I've read up on a lot of American breeders presenting their personal ideas.

One seemingly simple idea intrigued me.

The solution is already in your home.

There is a agreed cut of time amongst the family to have their showers at end of day. (deadline).

After this the heat in our hot water systems wether gas, electric or solar is all sitting in a holding tank usually insulated.

The heat in this water is usually waisted as it disapates by the next morning and ready for re-heating.

This valuable warm/hot water can be fed via a thermostat but at a trickle mode into the breed room.

Water can directly be fed into water or even via heat exchanger coil.

The most need for heat is the coarse of the night.

It shouldn't be all that hard to set up I'd imagine for a plumber,,, simple quick job.

So long as the breeder correctly engineers the planning.

Thinking yet ?? Lol,, I use to daydream this stuff all day, ha hah.

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Interesting idea, I was hoping to heat the concrete floor or a body of water for passive heating during the night. I agree insulation is the key. Tomorrow I will check the temp of the concrete floor, If its cold it will chill things down and that is the weak point in the heating.

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The concrete floor will suck and absorb the heat greatly for the first week of heating.

Once heat is saturated in slab it then equalizes and slightly irradiates, but mostly works like a barrier bouncing heat back upwards.

When spring comes the soil doesn't heat up with first warm week or so,,,, the ground needs time to absorb and retain.

Hot air rises, so worth doing a thicker ceiling (polystyrene).

Another handy key,,,, work out how many tanks your running and finalized in stands,, then design room size as small as possible around it,,,, being isles as tight as possible,, and ceiling height as low as possible.

The more water the better as you already said,, water retains heat better.

A centrifugal sump Definetely keeps heat consistent through out.

All my tanks sitting on the ground below the three upper levels through out is same temp as top tanks.

A mate of mine has air lift filters,,, and always messing around with monitoring temps.

Then on a another subject,, maintenance,,, my set up is ten times bigger and only takes me 10 minutes every Friday to filter clean,,, and my mate takes over two hours lol.

Takes him almost another two hours to water change, and he uses large pump to expell water.

Hah, I push a button and 45 mins later it auto shuts of and water change complete.

As Josh said, take note of your location and really see how longer period your cooler whether lasts,,, and work out how far to take things.

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  • 2 weeks later...

That's the sort of thing I am after, passive heating to assist. The concrete floor is 19 degrees so until it heated up it would draw the heat.

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  • 4 weeks later...

"Insulation, insulation, insulation"

Couldn't agree more. My - still not completed fishroom has approx. 2000 L (haven't sat down and worked the total as yet). I have one x one hundred watt heater and the room and tanks have not dropped below 21 degrees all winter. Some may think this too low, but I aim for a summer temp of 22 degrees and all is good with this, so a one degree drop below this is nothing to worry about.

"There is a agreed cut of time amongst the family to have their showers at end of day. (deadline)."

Good luck with that! lol (anyone for some water consuming teenage kids?)

"Hot air rises"

Indeed it does, and I have read lots in the past how to prevent the upper tanks not over heating with floor level tanks being too cool, with fans etc. The simple way around this when designing the fishroom, cause the tanks to be plumbed in a vertical fashion and not horizontal. That way the cooler lower tanks will share water with the upper warmer tanks = all tanks at much the same temperature, even if the air is warmer at the ceiling heights.

My fish room tanks are all plumbed so they each get water directly from water in the sump which is at floor level (on it actually), and once it passes out of each and every tank, the next place it goes is back to the sump. In this way all waters high and low are mixed, and in addition the water going out of each tank gets filtered before going back into any other tank.

Craig

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i helped abyss aquariums in campbelltown setup a system using hot water system with copper plumbing buried in sand under all the tanks it actually works where the fish requiring more heat stayed in the tanks closest to the heater where it stayed around 27-28 degrees further along to the length of 9 or so metres it only dropped to 25-26 degrees.another way is to insulate your plumbing if your running a sump.if youve only got sponge filters i suppose insulate with polystyrene back and sides.you can get polystyrene sheets from most furniture manufacturers or suppliers.

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  • 2 months later...

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