Consumer Homes.

Question:

I’m planning to setup a solar heating system for my home. Can the hot water be used to run an air conditioner in the summer? I know they have refrigerators that run on propane.

Response:

I have seen references to air conditioning on the sites for evacuated tube solar heat collectors. I don’t know enough of the thermodynamics of it, but I suspect you need the kind of significant heat differential that these collectors can produce to make air conditioning feasible. However, any heat differential can be used to motivate a heat pump. That’s why you can have a propane fridge. Dan – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – > I’m planning to setup a solar heating system for my home. Can the hot water be > used to run an air conditioner in the summer? I know they have refrigerators > that run on propane.

Response:

> I’m planning to setup a solar heating system for my home. Can the hot water be > used to run an air conditioner in the summer? I know they have refrigerators > that run on propane.

The solar’s work on the absorption principle, just like the refrigerators. You can check into Servel. They make a gas fired A/C, I almost bought one. It does flatten out on output when the temps get above 100. More so than the newer high seer units with scroll compressors. That was a big issue here in the AZ desert for me. I remember a company called, spelling please, Yeasu, Japanese. Saw a promo on it here in AZ on TV once. Lined the roof with collectors, yes completely covered the roof, and the roof was south facing. In the mid 80’s when I saw the program they said all domestic hot water, some pool heat and a/c, nothing about heat. Neighbor hood of $30,000.00. I do have a south facing roof line and my home owners ass as some stupid rules about solar. The rules state that the collectors if found to be unsightly, the HOA can ask for them to be screened. AZ has some pretty strict laws about access to the sun. I may decide to challenge this when I have the time and the $30k to part with. I admire your goal. Heads up, radar and sonar on and pinging. Your heading into rarely traveled waters. Look out for shoals and rocks.  I would council you on getting a contractor that has several successful installations under his belt. You might try the big a/c companies and see if anyone wants a test house. Also your utility. Our largest electrical utility has a test bed, some 20 acres of solar just a few miles from my home. I try to visit there once a year to see the new stuff. Last time I went they were doing 2 things that were interesting. Once was a standard a/c condenser run from PV. They used a natural gas generator to start it and then PV to run. Ok so the controls are hairy. Adjustable, sync able soft starts have come a long way in the last year. The other was hot water into a micro turbine to generate electricity.  Of course you can always look into a sterling engine. Good luck and I hope we hear more on your project. If your in the AZ desert, I would volunteer to help out about when time allows.

Response:

Thanks for the info. I also have an abundance clean ground water, the water table is only 4′ deep and in sand. I can easily use that to cool the hot side of the system. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – > I have seen references to air conditioning on the sites for evacuated > tube solar heat collectors. I don’t know enough of the thermodynamics of it, > but I suspect you need the kind of significant heat differential that these > collectors can produce to make air conditioning feasible. > However, any heat differential can be used to motivate a heat pump. That’s why > you can have a propane fridge. > Dan > I’m planning to setup a solar heating system for my home. Can the hot water be > used to run an air conditioner in the summer? I know they have refrigerators > that run on propane.

Response:

> Thanks for the info. I also have an abundance clean ground water, the water table is > only 4′ deep and in sand. I can easily use that to cool the hot side of the system.

What is the temperature of that ground water? If it’s cool enough then you might be able to get away with burying some few hundred feet of plastic tubing into the ground water table and circulating water through it with a heat exchanger inside the house. Anthony

Response:

- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> I’m planning to setup a solar heating system for my home. Can the hot > water be > used to run an air conditioner in the summer? I know they have > refrigerators > that run on propane. > The solar’s work on the absorption principle, just like the refrigerators. > You can check into Servel. They make a gas fired A/C, I almost bought one. > It does flatten out on output when the temps get above 100. More so than the > newer high seer units with scroll compressors. That was a big issue here in > the AZ desert for me. > I remember a company called, spelling please, Yeasu, Japanese. Saw a promo > on it here in AZ on TV once. > Lined the roof with collectors, yes completely covered the roof, and the > roof was south facing. In the mid 80’s when I saw the program they said all > domestic hot water, some pool heat and a/c, nothing about heat. > Neighbor hood of $30,000.00. I do have a south facing roof line and my home > owners ass as some stupid rules about solar. The rules state that the > collectors if found to be unsightly, the HOA can ask for them to be > screened. AZ has some pretty strict laws about access to the sun. I may > decide to challenge this when I have the time and the $30k to part with. > I admire your goal. Heads up, radar and sonar on and pinging. Your heading > into rarely traveled waters. Look out for shoals and rocks.  I would council > you on getting a contractor that has several successful installations under > his belt. You might try the big a/c companies and see if anyone wants a test > house. Also your utility. Our largest electrical utility has a test bed, > some 20 acres of solar just a few miles from my home. I try to visit there > once a year to see the new stuff. Last time I went they were doing 2 things > that were interesting. Once was a standard a/c condenser run from PV. They > used a natural gas generator to start it and then PV to run. Ok so the > controls are hairy. Adjustable, sync able soft starts have come a long way > in the last year. The other was hot water into a micro turbine to generate > electricity.  Of course you can always look into a sterling engine. > Good luck and I hope we hear more on your project. If your in the AZ desert, > I would volunteer to help out about when time allows.

The portion of my roof facing the sun is 15′ X  72′, about 1,000 square foot that’s usable. I live in north west Indiana on ten acres. In the winter time we see 2-3 months below 20f and in the summer 2 months above 80f with 80% humidity. My water table is only 4′ deep with a water temp of 55f to 60f in sand. Our electric doubled in the last few years, I pay $0.10 a kilowatt hour so I decided to look for alternative.   I also plan on changing my lighting to DC, around hear if sun isn’t shining the wind is blowing. I saw a few windmills for under $1,000 and some reasonable solar panels. It looks to me to be economical to run my lights off solar.   Thanks for the information and I’ll let you know every step, I like this news group, everyone seems helpful and friendly.

Response:

> > Thanks for the info. I also have an abundance clean ground water, the water table is > only 4′ deep and in sand. I can easily use that to cool the hot side of the system. > What is the temperature of that ground water? If it’s cool enough then > you might be able to get away with burying some few hundred feet of > plastic tubing into the ground water table and circulating water through > it with a heat exchanger inside the house. > Anthony

55F to 60F. That’s not a bad idea, I thought about running ground water threw a heat exchanger but I was worried about calcium and iron buildup in the heat exchanger. Your way I could go with a sealed system and treated water, almost maintenance free. Thanks

Response:

snipped – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> The portion of my roof facing the sun is 15′ X  72′, about 1,000 square foot > that’s usable. I live in north west Indiana on ten acres. In the winter time we > see 2-3 months below 20f and in the summer 2 months above 80f with 80% humidity. > My water table is only 4′ deep with a water temp of 55f to 60f in sand. Our > electric doubled in the last few years, I pay $0.10 a kilowatt hour so I decided > to look for alternative. >   I also plan on changing my lighting to DC, around hear if sun isn’t shining > the wind is blowing. I saw a few windmills for under $1,000 and some reasonable > solar panels. It looks to me to be economical to run my lights off solar. >   Thanks for the information and I’ll let you know every step, I like this news > group, everyone seems helpful and friendly.

If you look into solar and wind your going to need some batteries to store the power. dual chargers can be pricey.  solar and wind. Look at why your power bill is climbing, it is called demand side management. DC lighting has a lot of draw backs, only place I know to by stuff is RV. Just like owning a pool, the stuff is not cheap..  Look into CF compact fluorescents. 100 watts of light for 28 watts of power. I have 6 incandescent bulbs in my home everything else is CF.  Refrigerator 2, oven, and 3 motion lights in the front of my home. 55-60 will cool just barely, BUT will not provide humidity control. You need at least 45 for that. Of course you could put in a system for  chilling water use the ground as the source and then just drop it 15 degrees when needed.  Look into a fountain or cooling tower to drop it a bit more. Been used before in certain applications.

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