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[oldchenowth]

Oh c'mon Slim.  You're looking at this all wrong.  We hit the lottery every time you post something.

[slimjim]

How nice!

[Roger2561]

Oh c'mon Slim.  You're looking at this all wrong.  We hit the lottery every time you post something.

  

[12valve]

Goto Natures Comfort website, they sell solar water heaters and have complete instructions on how to plumb it to your OWB.

http://naturescomfortllc.com/products/sm-h60-solar-water-heater

Anyone have on of these or seen on in action?

[Maxnchej]

I'm interested In getting one to hookup to my 2840, only question us if it would work since it is really not designed for that brand. I bet that during the winter it wild help reduce wood usage and allow for high water during the drummer without burning wood.

[Toecheese90]

Max haha auto correct. I talked to nature's comfort the other day and I talked to a guy named Mike. This will work and will cut down on wood consumption.

[Toecheese90]

Hey sent me some pics but I can't seem to be able to put them on here. It says upload folder is full.

[mlappin]

Hey sent me some pics but I can't seem to be able to put them on here. It says upload folder is full.

Uploader has been full for awhile, post the pictures to something like Flickr or Photobucket then paste the links here.

[12valve]

I'm interested In getting one to hookup to my 2840, only question us if it would work since it is really not designed for that brand. I bet that during the winter it wild help reduce wood usage and allow for high water during the drummer without burning wood.

The one issue I can think of is since it is designed to not use a pump, in the winter you will either have to have antifreeze in your boiler, or heat tape the supply, return and manifold going up the center.  Otherwise at night when the water in that puppy stops moving you would be frozen solid.  I guess you could also put a small circ pump on it in the winter also.

[fryedaddy]

Has anyone looked for used solar panels?

I bought (6) panels and controller for $75.00 each. It's all been mounted on my shed and uses a goldline controller

http://shop.solardirect.com/product_info.php?products_id=154

This controller includes (2) sensors and runs the panels when they are hotter than the stove.

My setup includes (6) panels, Tubing, pump & solar controler.
The setup is pretty easy for older panels and the price can be very budget friendly.
My manufacturer builds his stoves sized appropriately so I'm able to use all the free energy
during the summer and shoulder months to help with heat and DHW.
I've been around hydronic solar panels 20+ years, all the same setup, no solar tubes.

I'm not sure of the benefit some will receive though, I believe the solar storage will be a limiting factor.

I have 650 gallons of water, it serves my purpose with a family of (4). My wife can wash our clothes and fill
our 70 gallon bath with no problems. I've turned my water heater off and had no problem but normally I just leave it on .

If you have any questions please feel free to ask. I believe solar panels are worth the investment as long as you have enough storage.

Look up my previous posts to find my setup.

[mlappin]

I'm interested In getting one to hookup to my 2840, only question us if it would work since it is really not designed for that brand. I bet that during the winter it wild help reduce wood usage and allow for high water during the drummer without burning wood.

The one issue I can think of is since it is designed to not use a pump, in the winter you will either have to have antifreeze in your boiler, or heat tape the supply, return and manifold going up the center.  Otherwise at night when the water in that puppy stops moving you would be frozen solid.  I guess you could also put a small circ pump on it in the winter also.

I read the manual from NC and if you can't set it up to thermosiphon then they also have a pump you could use. They also recommend wrapping the supply and return line with heat tape too prevent freezing.

[Maxnchej]

I see PM has some solar panels on there site, links don't work but I'm wondering if they offer a hookup to there boilers.

[RSI]

I'm interested In getting one to hookup to my 2840, only question us if it would work since it is really not designed for that brand. I bet that during the winter it wild help reduce wood usage and allow for high water during the drummer without burning wood.

The one issue I can think of is since it is designed to not use a pump, in the winter you will either have to have antifreeze in your boiler, or heat tape the supply, return and manifold going up the center.  Otherwise at night when the water in that puppy stops moving you would be frozen solid.  I guess you could also put a small circ pump on it in the winter also.

I read the manual from NC and if you can't set it up to thermosiphon then they also have a pump you could use. They also recommend wrapping the supply and return line with heat tape too prevent freezing.

I haven't looked at the manual lately so it may have changed but if you use fitting they show for boilers that don't have the port for the solar hookup, the pump will pull some water through the solar system.

There may be an issue connecting to a P&M boiler though if the supply is at the top and return is at the bottom. Nature's Comfort boilers have the return at the top so the hot water out of the solar system goes into the return. If you have available ports and don't have to tee into the supply and/or return then that probably doesn't matter.

[mlappin]

I've been thinking about this a bit and if I'm wrong please feel free to correct me, but I can't see either system from Natures Comfort doing much good in Northern Indiana when you don't see the sun for three days, it doesn't get above zero during the day and is well below zero at night those three days. I could actually see losing quite a bit of heat out of them.

Now maybe drain em once the hard part of winter sets in then refill and use them come spring to add some heat to the system and come high summer letting them heat your DMH.

Maybe for hard winters fill the system with antifreeze and have a small circulating pump running at all times and a zoning valve, temperature gets above a certain point, zoning valve kicks in and runs the antifreeze thru a 30 plate heat exchanger at the back of the boiler that the return water from the house circulates thru the other side of the fphe.

[slimjim]

Actually Marty you pretty much hit the nail on the head with how most solar thermal systems work, the biggest difference being instead of using a zone valve, they typically monitor the differential and turn on the circ as needed. I have set a few of these up and they work very well in tandem with an OWB, perhaps I should take some time to look at the Natures Comfort system?