Solar hot water and radiant floor heating

Be careful who you hire to do these jobs. I hired Chester Birchwood (the writer of the post) after his salesman Bernie Klinger conviced us that they could do the install in 3 weeks and for the contracted amount. It is now 6 months and I am waiting for the job to be completed. I am still waiting for a reciept showing how the $6000 payment made specifically for only the tanks were spent. I still don’t have the big tank.

Email me if you have had similar problems with them or if you have questions. pmpatel@yahoo.com.

thankyou. this post has been the most useful i’ve found so far regarding excess heat in the summer. but, to clarify a misconception: you can’t simply stop circulating the fluid and ignore the sun, just as you cannot leave your boiler burning continously and only draw off hot water when you need it. the sun is pouring energy into the system, and you are drawing it off by heating your domestic hopt water, and also heating your house. in the summer, you are not drawing off the energy to heat your house, so something must be done. one option: plant a tree! small deciduous trees on your roof would shade some of your collectors in the summer, but not as much in the winter. they would also improve air quality as a whole…

as for me, i’m still trying to figure out what to do with the excess, as i have a sloped roof.

you could size the system to pre-heat your boiler water for the winter (not for domestic hot water, or only for some) and then in the fall and spring it could provide both domestic and heat, then in the summer it could provide just domestic.

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Excerpt from the Civil War News… “As he prepared for his Shenandoah Valley Campaign, Sheridan assembled the makings of what would be the largest field hospital of the Civil War. Immediately following the … Battle at Winchester, a 500-tent hospital was constructed (and in) …operation for three months as what is now referred to as an evacuation hospital. The tents featured a unique radiant floor heating system, which proved invaluable in the cold fall and early winter months of 1864.”
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the heating system was adopted from the frontiers during the gold rush in the 1840/50’s. The hospital site is being restored and there is a reenactment each year of the hospital in action including a demonstration of the heating system…it was the Civil Wars version of a MASH unit.

Tent Hospitals

The common pre-war United States Army practice was to requisition buildings to serve as hospitals. However, early in the war the isolation of some battle sites and unprecedented patient volume compelled the increasing use of tents. Surgeon Bernard J. D. Irwin established the first regular tent hospital after the Battle of Shiloh in April, 1862. The practice soon spread to the Army of the Potomac medical system under Surgeon Jonathan Letterman. Union commander in the Shenandoah Valley, Major General Philip Sheridan, insisted that every aspect of the developing medical system be made available to his Middle Military Division when he took command.
The standard hospital tent in use was 14 feet long and wide and 4½ feet high with flaps that allowed it to be buttoned to others to make a larger ward. Each tent could hold eight patients and normally was pitched two paces apart from others in rows called “streets.” Every effort was made to make the tents as comfortable as possible. Boards were laid over sleepers for flooring and each tent was surrounded by a drainage ditch to keep the interior dry. Tents were heated with the so-called “California Plan.” A pit was dug about 2½ feet deep in front of the tent from which a trench the same depth extended the length of the tent to its outside rear. There a chimney of some sort was built. The trench was covered with stones or sheet iron. The resulting system provided a crude, but comfortable form of radiant heat. Storehouses, kitchens and officers were placed in spare tents or temporary structures and shelters convenient to the hospital streets.

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A Rose by any other name

The Chinese called it a “Kang”, for the Manchuria, it was known as ”Nahan”, the Koreans an “Ondol”, the Romans a “Hypocaust”…they were all forms of radiant heating and still used to this day.

The heating system used at the Civil war hospital was a form of ancient heat…it was referred to as the “Californian System” which may be a result of the Asian cultural and architectural influence in California during the era of building the railroads and the Gold Rush.

Sleeping like a Stone

The other night Dong Kwang was talking about the difference between sleeping areas here and in Korea. Traditionally, people sleep on the floor in Korea, he told us. And the floor is made of stone, or concrete.

But isn’t it very hard – and very cold, we enquired? No, he explained. There is a hole under the floor, with a fire in it, and hot air passes underneath the entire stone floor so that it’s very comfortable to sleep on it.

this comment was made earlier but people make systems with a “radiator” in the loop on the roof that dissipates excess heat (steam). there are systems designed this way. also, you don’t have to size some kind of massive system to get *some* radiant floor heat gain, you can size it down to a reasonable amount and get some heating gain but likely not 100% or even 80% of your heat from the sun. think of it as something like a pre-heat for winter instead of covering all of the heating, this would still cut down on heating bills. also, if you’re already installing a HW system on yr roof, then i don’t understand why costs are going to be so much crazier by adding another collector for your heating.

and for the person who said “About as green as that hybrid car paul macartney just had flown from japan to england in a private cargo plane”, you are completely wrong dude. go learn some stuff and come back to the discussion if you want to contribute.