Solar Thermal PV
Located in southwest Colorado, at 9400' altitude:
Looking to build a lined ICF tank with interior dimensions of 8'x8'x20'
At appx. 7.48052 gallons per cubic foot.
8x8x20 = 1280 cubic feet
1280 x 7.48052 = 9575 gallons
I'd like to design:
(1) Heating element system/array to heat tank to 180 deg
(2) PV system to supply electricity to heating elements
(3) Heat exchanger for DHW
(4) Heat exchanger for space heating (radiant in floor)
(5) Control & monitoring system
I'm interested in redundancy, so two 8x8x20 tanks will be built, as well as complete dual systems.
Using Solar Thermal Collectors, Thorsten Chlupp (in Alaska) was able to heat charge ~5000 gallons of water and get ~ 6 weeks of useable hot water for DHW and space heating before going to consumables. That's 1/4 of the water storage I'm considering here as we have other uses for the excess heat - house, 2 cabins, barn, snow melt stems. Panels will be ground mount, as we have large acreage available.
My interest in PV as a source is to avoid moving parts as much as possible, and the risk of dealing with moving water to collectors exposed to harsh elements. My intention is not use the PV panels when the sun is out, but not use any battery storage between the PV and the water heating elements in the tank.
Curious to get input on how to approach such a design.
Thx in Advance!
Corey.. |