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Solar space & water heating
LF alternative designs of combined DIY space-water heating systems, mounted on home rooftops. Solar space heating is useful in the cooler spring and fall days in northerly climates, and not really needed in warmer summer days if a house is well-insulated and has lots of thermal mass, but the hot summer sun would take care of hot water needs. Big problem with using cu piping for hot water system is that precipitate tends to clog them over time; the only way I can see overcoming this is to use (filtered) rainwater rather than city(utility) water but this requires additional pumping gadgetry, and rainwater isn't what it used to be when it comes to drinking it. If the only rainwater used was from the al-covered roof at least it wouldn't have the ashphalt chemicals.
To take advantage of hot air for space heating, electric fans would be required.
One way to economize on system costs would be to use 2' wide al roll sheeting as permanent, (no-need-to-replace) roofing material, rather than shingles on the south portion of the roof and locating piping on top of it inside collector boxes. Since solar collectors would sit on top of al aesthetics would not be affected. New house design might take this into account, including avoidance of vents and chimneys on the south slope, but no reason that skylights can't be incorporated. Does anyone know if there might be a fire hazard or other damage from collectors overheating on a very hot day? Probably be a good idea to locate electronic air clearners in the cold air return so dust dosen't accumulate in the collectors and clean air is circulated throughout the house. Would appreciate information on success folks have had with this kind of concept, especially on things like having to keep the space and water heating systems separate from each other, sizing collectors, draindown provisions.
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Maybe give some free advice about: Advicenators?
I have been staring at your question for months and until recently have had no answer but i met someone who is building a "green" house from scratch and i asked them. to answer the one question here the answer is no. there is no fire danger from your solar collectors overheating as long as you are using standard wiring and hook ups. The system my friend has come up with is an indoor pool for use as a heat sink from pipes and collectors outside and radiant heating in the floor to heat and cool the house during the different seasons. this requires pumps that are temp controlled and a rather advanced system to maintaing regualting temps. The system really has to be built from scratch to suit the enviroment of your particular building so some reasearch as to what the average temp and rainfall in your area will be necessary.
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