New Solar heat system in New Mexico

[billmh]

We will be heating about 2200sqft at 6000' elv in northern NM. The house is passively designed and will have radiant floor heating. I do have some experience with a 2 panel 1 tank system I had in NM and it was adequate for hot water and a bit of radiator heat for the bathrooms, but that was about it in the wintertime. Had gas furnace as primary heat, as well as a gas HWH for backup. Solar preheated this.

Though I plan to get some professional input, I do want to have an efficient and cost effective system in mind. Now I want to use a 4 panel system with 2large solar storage tanks (thinking 120gal) in parallel. Both the solar and the radiant floor will be glycol based and isolated via heat exchanger.

My dilemma is the back up heat source and its configuration . Of course I am hoping the passive and the solar panels will be enough, but one must plan for those long cloudy weeks.

Would it be effective to use a condensing boiler such as a Munchkin or Peerless as back-up/booster heat, Polaris with additional storage (expensive), or just use storage tanks with either gas or electric elements? Gas is preferable.

On configuration, if I go with a boiler is it better to put it in line and act as a booster for hot water demand, or as an indirect heater for the storage tanks?

I can find all the configurations, but no mention on efficiency or effectiveness.

Bill

[danielhenry31]

Great effort to use the ultimate resource of solar energy.I m also planning to make such a solar panel for my house.I will visit this place soon to get more details.Do they allow us to see their experiments ?

[Mike90250]

Great effort to use the ultimate resource of solar energy.I m also planning to make such a solar panel for my house.I will visit this place soon to get more details.Do they allow us to see their experiments ?

Welcome danielhenry. Don't keep posting spam about livecofriendly.com/elite-series-sherpa-solar-kits

[ed2kayak]

How about tank-less gas, as backup.

[Mike90250]

Depending on your electric - some of the heat pump types of water heaters are becoming very attractive. Their efficiency has increased, and it's almost the propane fridge or electric energy star fridge question. If you have the power on cloudy days, heat pump.

Also, evacuated glass tube collectors are supposed to be good even in cloudy conditions.

[russ]

A heat pump water heater should have a COP of greater than 2.0 meaning it uses less than half the energy the best gas unit will.

For in floor radiant you want to keep the water temps low (mine is at 35 deg C) so the COP would probably be even better.

[ChrisW]

I like the tankless idea..I f you really want to play some games, you could use a drainback system and undersize your sorage tanks. When your tanks reached temp, which would be quicker than normal, you could directly dump into the floor with a three way valve. It would be like a heat dump option on many of the new controllers. The same three way could isolate the floor from the SDHW system so that an inline boiler could do the heating for the cloudy day. Fun to think about.

[russ]

You have to take caution with the water going to the infloor heating - normally it would be between 35 and 40 deg C (95 to 105 deg F).

My 5 ton heat pump circulates about 2.5 m3 of hot water per hour - know how many panels and how much storage that would take to work all night? When I realized the amount of panels I dropped the solar/radiant floor connection idea - not enough heat to bother with from the panels.

[iamshane]

I'm glad that the number of people utilizing solar energy is increasing. Indeed, in whatever project we plan to do, we must make sure that effectiveness and efficiency must be thoroughly reviewed.

[Mike90250]

I'm glad that the number of people utilizing solar energy is increasing. Indeed, in whatever project we plan to do, we must make sure that effectiveness and efficiency must be thoroughly reviewed.
Lean More About Solar Power

So, iamshane, are you here to Learn? Teach? Share ? or drop spam links

[netttech]

<<<My dilemma is the back up heat source and its configuration . Of course I am hoping the passive and the solar panels will be enough, but one must plan for those long cloudy weeks.>>>
You mentioned radiant, solar heat & needing a backup. Do yo have a free-standing wood burner? I converted an old free-standing wood burner as a boiler to feed my radaint baseboard/pex under-the-floor. Basically, I took the top cover off, tightened the coils of copper tubing to fit under top on the firebox, placed a loose cover over that, then replace the original top cover. I also made a cheap tin roof over the entire unit (sitting outside).
I tested this configuration last year after my solar thermal panel design failed. It works & easily produces sustained 120 degrees hot water (glycol) pumping 2 gpm.
I'm in the process of incorporating it with my new solar panel, utilizing the same plumbing. Solar during the day & wood burner/boiler at night. I will try to post a picture of the wood-burner.
You may want to consider it as an option.
jeff

[LucMan]

We will be heating about 2200sqft at 6000' elv in northern NM. The house is passively designed and will have radiant floor heating. I do have some experience with a 2 panel 1 tank system I had in NM and it was adequate for hot water and a bit of radiator heat for the bathrooms, but that was about it in the wintertime. Had gas furnace as primary heat, as well as a gas HWH for backup. Solar preheated this.

Though I plan to get some professional input, I do want to have an efficient and cost effective system in mind. Now I want to use a 4 panel system with 2large solar storage tanks (thinking 120gal) in parallel. Both the solar and the radiant floor will be glycol based and isolated via heat exchanger.

My dilemma is the back up heat source and its configuration . Of course I am hoping the passive and the solar panels will be enough, but one must plan for those long cloudy weeks.

Would it be effective to use a condensing boiler such as a Munchkin or Peerless as back-up/booster heat, Polaris with additional storage (expensive), or just use storage tanks with either gas or electric elements? Gas is preferable.

On configuration, if I go with a boiler is it better to put it in line and act as a booster for hot water demand, or as an indirect heater for the storage tanks?

I can find all the configurations, but no mention on efficiency or effectiveness.

Bill

Old post but maybe I can get my view in before you purchase a munchkin.
Think Burnham Alpine.

[So solar]

Pheonix makes a high efficiency gas boiler combi. 80 gallons and up. The combo has ports for space heating, dhw, and a built in Heat Exchanger(wrapped coil) for solar. Although a little pricey. One 120 gallon of this tank would be adequate for all of your needs. Very few companies make a gas tank with solar capabilities. This one is good. Although you would need a 3/4" gas line and a way to get 4" pvc intake and exhaust vents out.