Must Get A Life!

[OnOff]

Erm................well,

it certainly gets the water HOT. As in in excess of shower hot. Glass is too hot to touch for long (was going to try an egg..........) Don't have a temperature probe so unsure of how hot etc. Tip it on it's side/level and the water that comes out is proper hot.

BUT no sign of the syphoning effect I was hoping for as in hot water gushing from the top exit pipe! Is this a sign that it is inefficient or needs a pump?

I've only just set it up. Do I "prime" it with cold, let it heat up and then try or Is it supposed to be in a closed system?

Cheers

 

[steptoe]

yer, it cant syphon higher than the source,

at the minute the 'hot' water is merely rising up the cans, then as the water at the bottom gets hotter it rises and the top water falls,

what you need is a larger tub of water,[5 gallon drum?], place the inlet[bottom hose near the top, and the outlet [top hose] near the bottom of this barrel,

you will need to prime it first, simply suck on the top outlet until water comes out the hose, put your thumb over it, and fix it into the bottom of your barrel,

the water will continually syphon round and will gradually heat up as it goes, you may need to use a smaller diameter hose so it doesnt travel too fast, and not gain enough heat through the matrix.

looking good BTW,

:Applaud

 

[OnOff]

yer, it cant syphon higher than the source,

at the minute the 'hot' water is merely rising up the cans, then as the water at the bottom gets hotter it rises and the top water falls,

what you need is a larger tub of water,[5 gallon drum?], place the inlet[bottom hose near the top, and the outlet [top hose] near the bottom of this barrel,

you will need to prime it first, simply suck on the top outlet until water comes out the hose, put your thumb over it, and fix it into the bottom of your barrel,

the water will continually syphon round and will gradually heat up as it goes, you may need to use a smaller diameter hose so it doesnt travel too fast, and not gain enough heat through the matrix.

looking good BTW,

:Applaud

As nothing was happening I thought (no idea why) that I'd haul the yellow hose out of the washing up bowl and BLOW up the end just to see how hot the water was getting i.e force it through.........................Well, no water came out but I got a blast of SEARING heat across the fingers, absolutely SCORCHING! I dropped it before any water came out and jammed my hand in the bowl! :lol:

Off to find a drum..........thinking old beer making plastic keg? Right then, found this, any good?

And "levels" sure I need to consider this.....................but what? Panel on the deck with barrel next to it or barrel higher?





(Why is the spell checker not working as I type this? Running off the Ubuntu Live DVD.......................)

 

[ProDave]

The barrel needs to go higher than the panel for thermo syphoning.

So try the barrel sitting on that low wall, and the panel on the ground next to it.

Don't expect the water to to flow out and dribble out of the pipe.  you will need hose fittings drilled into the barrel one at the top and one at the bottom, but BOTH below the water level.

And leave the cap off the barrel so it doesn't pressurise and rupture. 

 

[steptoe]

syphoning is indifferent to where any one point is,

the barrel can be at any level, the only thing important is your outlet hose MUST finish lower than your water level, it is regardless of any other factor,

you could syphon it over the top of your house if you wanted to.! 

stick the inlet on the tap at the bottom, and your outlet can go through the cap at the top, and put it probably about 3/4 way down[the hot water will rise], or even right to the bottom

the system needs to be primed first to get the water flowing to your outlet BEFORE you put the outlet in the barrel,

an easy way to do this would be simply put the outlet at a lower level and turn the tap on, when its flowing leave the tap on and kink the pipe so you can lift it higher than the water level to stick it in the barrel.

I do get Daves idea of thermo syhoning, but, it still needs primed , and, in my mind, will take much much longer to get any sort of result, rather than general syhoning which I think you will see results from much quicker.

the other thing is, you can also use the tap on the bottom to control the syphon speed, do you have a clear pipe you can see the speed through?

it needs to be fairly slow I would think to get the best heat transfer.

As nothing was happening I thought (no idea why) that I'd haul the yellow hose out of the washing up bowl and BLOW up the end just to see how hot the water was getting i.e force it through.........................Well, no water came out but I got a blast of SEARING heat across the fingers, absolutely SCORCHING! I dropped it before any water came out and jammed my hand in the bowl! :lol:

Off to find a drum..........thinking old beer making plastic keg? Right then, found this, any good?

And "levels" sure I need to consider this.....................but what? Panel on the deck with barrel next to it or barrel higher?





(Why is the spell checker not working as I type this? Running off the Ubuntu Live DVD.......................)

sounds like it was just turning to steam!!!!!! 

albeit perhaps very slowly hence why you didnt see any vapour

 

[OnOff]

Um........Steps, I'm confused:

Post #23:

"place the inlet[bottom hose near the top, and the outlet [top hose] near the bottom of this barrel,"

Post #25:

"stick the inlet on the tap at the bottom, and your outlet can go through the cap at the top,"

 

[Sharpend]

I can't believe OnOff with all you're engineering ingenuity you can't understand some plain talk!!!!!

It's fairly simple, I think they call it covering all bases. If it doesn't work one way swap it round and try the other. ?

Just summising??????

Ps is love to live next door to you, it'd be like living next door to professor Potts (chitty chitty bang bang ref for those who aren't old enough!)

 

[OnOff]

I can't believe OnOff with all you're engineering ingenuity you can't understand some plain talk!!!!!

It's fairly simple, I think they call it covering all bases. If it doesn't work one way swap it round and try the other. ?

Just summising??????

Ps is love to live next door to you, it'd be like living next door to professor Potts (chitty chitty bang bang ref for those who aren't old enough!)

Needs more JIGGAWATTS!



:lol:

 

[steptoe]

Ok, so i even confused myself,

It doesnt actually matter which hose is where to syphon, as long as the head of water is higher than the end of the outlet hose,

Positioning the hoses is purely to get the hot water to circulate properly in the barrel.

As hot water rises, i think probably inlet at very bottom(coldest?) and outlet 3/4 way down so it heats most of the barrel. :C

 

[OnOff]

The barrel needs to go higher than the panel for thermo syphoning.

So try the barrel sitting on that low wall, and the panel on the ground next to it.

Don't expect the water to to flow out and dribble out of the pipe.  you will need hose fittings drilled into the barrel one at the top and one at the bottom, but BOTH below the water level.

And leave the cap off the barrel so it doesn't pressurise and rupture. 

Cheers. Will I not lose heat out of the "open" cap? Wonder if some form of pressure relief valve would be better?

(......getting REALLY crazy, I was debating whether to run a coil through either an INSULATED compost and/or manure heap!)

 

[binky]

Customer of  mine built a similar unit but used it for hot air only. He has plans to build more! Personally I think it would be easier to stangle some copper pipe into a nice 'S' shape, but certainly this is all viable stuff to build yourself, which in the early days of solar thermal, was the only option.

 

[OnOff]

Yep, I saw a hot air version, "canair" I think it was termed. So I thought I'd cap the ends of the soft drink stack around the verticals of a standard tube matrix one and came up with "my" effort. It's a bitsa!

Yep, I'll be insulating the tank.

Got myself a "binder valve" today to go on the outlet. Allows insertion of a temperature probe.

Next HOT day, time permitting I'll plumb in a tank and post pics / results.

 

[Andy™]

bit late now, but instead of all that work making cutting pipes & soldering, what about an old towel radiator?

 

[OnOff]

bit late now, but instead of all that work making cutting pipes & soldering, what about an old towel radiator?

Nah, wouldn't have suited the can spacing / pitch of 66mm!

 

[binky]

towel rad good idea, but you never have one when you need one!!

 

[OnOff]

The "Binder" valve...................to be positioned on the outlet. Allows insertion of a temperature probe (with very little leakage) into the liquid flow as opposed to measuring the outside temp. of the pipe. One of the guys on site found it for me on some pipework being scrapped after a fit out:

 

[OnOff]

Well, she's "warming up" ready for the hopefully scorcher of a weekend:



Spot the M20 stuffing gland:



Comments/derision welcome!

:lol:

 

[Andy™]

that wont work, the water level in the pipe to the top will be at the same level as the water in the tank, the hot water will not be able to rise and circulate (since it can just move up the pipe with no force on it). you need the top of the water level above all pipework. if you fitted it into the side of the barrel then it would work

 

[OnOff]

that wont work, the water level in the pipe to the top will be at the same level as the water in the tank, the hot water will not be able to rise and circulate (since it can just move up the pipe with no force on it). you need the top of the water level above all pipework. if you fitted it into the side of the barrel then it would work

The "top" pipe goes in to about half way down the barrel - well below the level..................................

 

[Andy™]

if you have all the air out of that pipe then it should work, but any air in it and it wont