Equip solar heating or how to build a home-made collector

The law of conservation of energy almost buried the dream of a perpetual motion machine. However, at the disposal of man there is another source of inexhaustible and accessible energy for everyone - the Sun. Engineers and craftsmen have developed a number of excellent devices to use this renewable resource for the improvement of residential buildings. One of such useful constructions is a solar collector for heating, the manufacture of which is available even to a novice master.

Options for Using Solar Energy

The solar battery and solar collector are different types of devices. Solar panels are used not only for heating a house. With their help, the energy of the sun is converted into electrical energy, accumulated in batteries, and then used for various needs: powering electrical appliances, heating the coolant in the system, etc. This device can be done with your own hands, but still the photocells that make up the batteries buy separately. The job is to connect the photocells to a circuit, fix them in a special case and install them correctly.

With the help of a collector, solar heating of a private house is organized using direct thermal energy. The sun's rays heat the water, which then enters the heating system of the house. It is possible to use the same system for the simultaneous organization of hot water supply. To make a solar collector special photocells are not needed. Craftsmen are successfully manufacturing such solar heating systems from improvised materials.

How is the solar collector arranged?

The solar collector is a hydraulic system that consists of three main elements:

• solar panel;
• advance chambers;
• storage tank.

Solar panels, in simple terms, are a tubular radiator enclosed in a box with a glass front wall. It is placed in some sunny place, for example, on the roof. The water entering the radiators of the solar panels is heated and moved to the chamber. Here, cold water is replaced by an already hot coolant and constant dynamic pressure in the system is maintained. In this case, cold water moves to the radiators of the solar panels, and hot water enters the storage tank, from which it is transferred to the heating system of the house.

It is best to place the solar collector on the south side of the roof at an angle of 35-45 degrees. The radiator and the inside of the box are best painted black

The so-called thermosiphon process is used in the work of a solar collector of this type. When heated, the density of water changes, its heated layers expand and displace cold water. As a result, a solar pump does not need a pump to organize heating; the heat carrier moves through the system under the influence of natural processes.

How to make a solar collector?

For self-production of a solar collector, you can use a variety of improvised materials. First, the individual elements of the system are made, and then they are connected using pipes.

Stage # 1 - making a solar panel

To make a solar panel for heating, you will need a box and material for a radiator. The box is usually made of plywood. It is recommended to insulate the walls and the bottom of the box, for example, with a layer of foam to minimize heat loss. For the manufacture of a radiator, you can use pieces of wide pipes that are interconnected by pipes of smaller diameter.

An interesting version of a homemade solar panel made of aluminum cans is presented in the following video:

The top of the box is covered with glass of a suitable size. To increase the efficiency of the solar panel, its inner part and radiators are recommended to be painted black, and the outside of the panel is made white.

This diagram clearly demonstrates one of the options for creating a panel for a solar collector. The box is made of boards and hardboard, closed with glass

Stage # 2 - advance camera and storage tank

To make these solar collector elements, you need a couple of suitable containers. For the drive you need a fairly large tank, its capacity should vary between 150-400 liters. The tank should also be insulated, for example by placing it in a plywood box and filling the surrounding space with heat-insulating materials: polystyrene foam, mineral wool, sawdust, etc.

Tip. If it was not possible to get a tank of suitable sizes, you can use several smaller tanks, connecting them together.

The avankamera is made of a small tank with a capacity of not more than 40 liters. This container must be airtight and equipped with a ball valve or other water supply device.

Stage # 3 - assembly of the entire system

After the basic elements are ready, they must be correctly placed and connected among themselves. First install the chambers and the storage tank. In this case, it is important to correctly observe the ratio of the liquid level in each container. The water level in the tank should be higher than the water level in the drive by more than 80 cm.

The solar panel is usually placed on the roof, optimally on the south side with a slope of about 40 degrees to the horizon. The distance between the storage tank and the radiator should be at least 70 cm. Thus, an avanchamber is placed at the top of the system, a storage tank is placed below, and a solar panel is at the very bottom.

Note! A significant amount of water may be present in the storage tank and the fore chamber. Even at the stage of designing the system, the maximum possible weight of the coolant and the bearing capacity of the overlap on which the solar collector will be mounted should be correlated.

Then install:

• drive drain pipe;
• drainage pipe
• cold water supply pipe to the fore chamber;
• cold water inlet pipe;
• cold water supply pipe to the mixers;
• hot water pipe to mixers
• a pipe for supplying hot water to the storage tank;
• “Hot” tube of a solar radiator;
• storage tank feed pipe.

At the same time, it is recommended to use half-inch pipes on high-pressure sections of the system, and inch pipes are suitable for low-pressure sections. In addition, various fittings, adapters, shafts, etc. should be used. The scheme of the solar collector is presented in detail in the figure:

The layout of the solar collector shows the location of the chambers, the storage tank and the solar panel, as well as the pipes connecting them

To commission the system, it is necessary to fill the installation with water through the lower drainage holes. Then the chamber is connected to the water supply system of the house and the liquid level in the collector is regulated.If all the joints are tight, you can start operating a new device.

Some installation tips

When creating a solar collector it is recommended:

1. Drain valves should be installed at the bottom of the system to remove excess air from the system.
2. Insulate all hot pipelines.
3. Install a valve that stops the flow of coolant in the event of a cold snap so as not to damage the system.
4. When supplying hot water to the consumption devices, make mixers, since the temperature of the liquid can be very high.

Implementation of these recommendations will help make the system as efficient as possible.