Sunsaver, Livining Off-Grid In Suburbia- Happy Taconight America!

[sunsaver]

Im working on some paperwork to get the lien lifted due to hardship. Having no money is not much of a hardship though, unless you have to depend on the grocery store for all of your food. Tonight i'll be canning some tomatos. There's way more than i can eat before they spoil. I've got a little paint job tomorrow, so i don't need to sell them. The blackberries are about done, but i do like to make green tea from the leaves. It tastes wonderful, and it's full of antioxidants. i didn't know it was good for headaches, but i never get headaches unless i drink too much!
I've got a few plums getting ripe, lots of different peppers, and ive been eating squash and onions every other day. My cucumbers are not doing well in the heat. It's still triple digit weather here, and now we are in a drought. Goodbye perfect spring, hellow record heatwave!
Well, im toying around with designs for a low power evaporative cooling system. I think it will help keep me comforable until i can afford to build a geothermal system. The idea is to use a small water fountain pump to lift water from a catchment to a resevoir above. The water will drip from weep holes in the resevoir, and trickle down through a fiberglass air filter or strips of that material that are positioned in front of a fan.
The plus side of this hot weather is that my solar water heater is putting out scalding hot water. I have to cut in quite a bit of cold water to safely take a shower, but it's great for washing jars and canning gear. I'm still amazed how elegant the thermosiphon water heater design is. No moving parts except a check valve, no electricity or gas required, and i get free hot water on every sunny day!

 

[dragonlaurel]

Can you post how to do the water heater? That sounds great, and way simpler than lots of them.

 

[sunsaver]

I don't have a digital camera right now, but i can make a sketch and describe all the fittings. Pretty soon i will post pictures of all my renewable energy inventions. I've gotten a patent before. Investors, contracts, lawyers, etc. I spent a fortune and never made a dime. So anything i invent now will be shared freely with the public domain from the very start. I would make them and sell them, but i would have to charge a premium for the labor.
Here's a quick run down. I removed my 30gal electric water heater and drained the water out. I installed two new steel nipples (a short pipe with threads on both ends) into the hot and cold inlets. I used one of those as a handle and dragged the empty tank up on to my roof. I built a doghouse platform out of OSB and treated 2x4 lumber, such that i would have a level place to set the tank, and also to distribute the weight across 3 rafters. I removed the cover plates over the upper and lower heating elements, and removed elements and thermostat. I used a steel reducer bushing to screw into the holes left by the upper and lower heating elements. I used both teflon tape and pipe dope (rectorseal high temp) on the threads. I then used 1/2 in. cpvc male adapters to screw into the reducer bushings. I coated them with all-purpose cement (pvc glue) to prevent leaks, then quickly screwed them in by hand. I used cpvc female adapters on the hot and cold inlet nipples, again coated in glue and hand tightened.
For the collector i used a piece of economy tin roofing from Home Depot. I used tin snips to cut the 10 ft sheet into 2- 2 1/2 x 5 pieces. I used a tubing cutter to cut some type m hard copper pipe into lengths about an inch longer than the tin, one piece for every valley or "wave" in the tin. I cut small pieces of pipe to make the loops, and used copper 90's to attach them on alternating sides, so the water must zig-zag up the copper collector. Once the pieces where fitted, i glued the pipe sections to the tin with black silicon adhesive. Silicon is very heat resistant. I then put masking tape on the ends of the pipes and spray painted the collector with flat black BBQ paint. then i put flux on all connections and soldered them up with silver solder using a torch with mapp gas. The inlet and outlet ended up on the same side of the collector, not that it matters.
The collector was then put into a box made from OSB (oriented strand board) which is used for roofing and is very weather resistant. The inside of the box was lined with styrofoam board insulation attached with silicone adhesive, foil side up. I placed the box on the roof of my power shed which is tilted toward the sun, and lower than the roof where i put the tank. The collector must be lower than the tank for this to work. Two holes were drilled in the side of the box for the inlet and outlet pipes which i soldered on first, then put the collector in the box. Then i took an old window with an aluminum frame and glued it on top of the box with silicon adhesive. On the inlet side, i soldered on a tee. To the downhill side of the tee i soldered on a sill cock for use as a low point drain for both the collector and the tank. on the other side of the tee, i soldered a check valve (one way gate valve) and then a copper female adapter. On the outlet side i soldered on another tee. On the downhill side i soldered on a copper female adapter. Using tape and dope, i screwed into the adapter, a temperature and pressure relief valve. on the up-hill side i soldered on a copper female adapter. Using CPVC male adapters coated with glue, i hand tightened them in place. The tank and collector where ready for connection by CPVC pipes.
I made two "telephone poles" by using my skill saw to rip a 16ft. treated 2x4 down the middle. I then used a post hole digger to set them at 10ft apart or so. This is because my sun is so far from the house which is fully shaded. The tank and collector do not need to be far apart. I then attached the house cold water supply to the tanks cold inlet. I then attached the tanks hot outlet to the the hot water line of the house (all in CPVC). I ran CPVC pipe from the lower connction at the tank to the collector inlet, and pipe from the collector outlet back to the tanks upper connection. I then filled the tank by: slightly opening the low point drain valve at the collector, and holding open the T&P relief valve on top of the tank (between the hot and cold inlets on most tanks.) as soon as water came out the low valve i turned it off. When waters came out of the T&P valve on top of the tank, it was full. There were no leaks at the tank or collector, but a hairline fracture in the CPVC pipe started spewing water everywhere! I cussed several times, shut off the water, and drained the tank with the low point valve at the collector. Once i had cut out the bad section of pipe and glued in a coupling, i refilled the tank and collector. No leaks! By that point, the sun had gone down. No hot water, but whats one more day after two months of cold showers.
How it works: Because cold water is more dense than hot, it is also heavier. The cold water sinks to the bottom of the tank where it flows out the outlet and downhill to the collector. As soon as it enters the collector, it gets heated by the sun and starts to rise up the zig-zag of black, copper pipes. by the time it exits the collector it can be as hot as 130F or more. It continues back uphill, to the upper connector at the tank, where it mixes with the cold water as sinks back to the bottom. This is the process of convection, and the thermosiphon effect will continue until all of the water in the tank is the same temperature as the water at the collector, or until the sun is not shining on the collector anymore. The check valve prevents reverse thermal circulation at night. After just a couple of hours of sun, almost the entire tank is full of really hot water. No gas. No electricity being used. Completely renewable hot water for washing, taking showers, doing the dishes. I think the thermosiphon hot water heater is one of the most elegant systems in the world. Too bad i didn't invent it!

 

[dragonlaurel]

Thanks!
It's nice if you can cash in on your inventions, but that doesn't usually seem to happen.
I like having plans for good stuff in the public domain. It may do the world more good that way in the long run.
Are you good at marketing your skills and products? You still might check about taking orders to make them. Get a deposit that covers the materials and some extra, so you know they wont change their minds easily. You also might have somebody videotape you while you make one, and sell the plans/video for some side money. Lots of people learn easier from watching the process, than from reading diagrams.

You're actually good at describing the process. I'm following it pretty well, so far. I'd heard about using an old water heater before to take advantage of the insulation, etc that they normally have. So far, it sounds like you could get everything but the old water heater at a well stocked hardware store.

I have a question on this bit :
" I installed two new steel nipples (a short pipe with threads on both ends) into the hot and cold inlets. "
How did you attach them? soldered, welded ?

I can solder fine, but never learned to weld yet. It would be a good skill to learn, but the equipment isn't exactly cheap either.

Also- Can you use the alcohol & boric acid mix for the soldering or do you need the store bought kind for the copper connections?

 

[Ema]

Wow!! Impressive and very interesting Journal, I read every single post and that is not something I usually do, will definitely keep reading, thanks for sharing with us your experiences and past/present and future. I sure hope things turn around for you.

I admire how well you have fared through all of it and how you made every bad situation into a great one. Fantastic!!!

Ema

 

[sunsaver]

Thanks Ema!

 

[sunsaver]

I will finish the solar water heater story by editing that post. Dragonlaurel wanted a full description. Im using standard plumbing terminology so that anyone can build one using my description. Not much of a creative story, more just a play by play account of how i built it. DL, i used teflon tape, pipe dope, and an 18in. pipe wrench to fasten the nipples and bushings into the water heater tank. I'm an excellent welder, but theres no welding on this project. The key to good soldering is to heat one side of the connection and apply solder from the other. as soon as the solder flows into the joint, remove the flame yet continue to apply solder for a couple of seconds. Also, i failed to mention that i stripped off the insulation to make a batch heater that did not work. The insulation might make it difficult to tighten the bushing into the heating element holes. Also, you can get the same tanks that they make water heaters out of online, insulation free. Tearing that stuff off with tin snips and pliers was a tough job. As far as marketing or getting a real job, i don't care. All i need is a new laptop, maybe an ice maker, a goat would be nice if i had the grass. I like being self sufficient, and growing all this food is time consuming. Im selling tomatoes, squash, potatoes, and greens. I also trade for things, do an odd job here or there. With no bills, there's not much incentive for me to work. I wouldn't mind being a writer or online contributing editor. I like being in the garden most of all!

 

[dragonlaurel]

Thanks I used to work in a hardware store, so I rang up enough of these doo-dads to recognize them and have the basic idea of how they're used. That's a good head start for a first plumbing project.

 

[txhomegrown]

This is a great idea! Some of the description throws me off a bit, but I am not a dummy so I should be able to piece it together when I see all the parts in one place. The hard part will be getting the tank hauled up and installed on top of my barn without falling off and killing myself. It is a pretty tall barn.
Thanks for all the great ideas. I am going to get moved out to 5 acres I own in the boonies later this year and I don't want to be on the grid if I can help it.
The solar power info you provided will be the key point in getting that done. I like the idea of being able to start small and add more as I can afford it.
Oh, and good luck with the IRS. I can't really say what I think of them, because I couldn't possibly clean up the language enough for this forum.

 

[sunsaver]

TxHG, feel free to Pm me if you need any tech support or design help. I will soon be posting plans and photos of all my projects. I don't intend to keep any beneficial technology secret. This is the main reason i am on this site, to share what i've learned on my journey to going off grid.