Hot Water

Ok..  Some of you know that I went to France to learn about solar energy and most importantly, how to harness said energy.  I've come home with all this fantastic knowledge which I just have to put to use.  I've started building a solar hot water system for my home in Georgia..  Today, I got the heat exchanger installed.  The following pictures are of the heat exchanger itself and installed next to my hot water tank.

First...  the water under the tank was not from any of my solder joints leaking.... I opted to put the original boiler valve back on instead of the new one I bought in order to save $5, I had a hard time getting it to close fully.

Second...  no, there are no unions in the system..  I'll put those in when I have to change the hot water tank..  Hopefully many years from now.  There is, however, a dielectric nipple between the tank and the copper pipe at the bottom. hopefully that will further extend the life of the tank.

The heat exchanger in the first picture, is the same both top and bottom, however it is assembled so the fluid goes out the opposite end, hopefully maximizing the efficiency of the heat exchanger.  The design of the heat exchanger is a direct copy from The Maine Solar Primer (warning: 20 mb .pdf) (Thanks to Richard Komp for permission to use and post to the internet (also thanks to The Dharma House for posting said to their site))

Once the pump and solar collector are installed, the lower heating element will be disconnected and the thermostat will be lowered to ~110 degrees and the whole assembly (tank and heat exchanger) will be wrapped in an insulating blanket designed for water heaters and available at any box store.

   So far, in practical application what I would do differently, instead of a symetrical heat exchanger, I would put three tees accross the bottom instead of 2 tees and a reducing elbow, I would then put the cold water into the system thru the heat exchanger instead of right into the bottom of the tank.