Solar Evacuated Tubes for Hot Water

January 12,2010

Here is Mats solar evacuated tubes. They appear to be standing the cold weather well b ut they do need the snow cleared from them periodically.Notice the second set of evacuated tubes in the far right on the house.... and they too need the snow cleared.

Updated by Clare

	September 2009 Here is Will installing the last of the 36 evacuated tubes.
	Now that is a mess of tubing and wires!!! Basically the tank to the right preheats the water from the solar water heater over the cistern and then that water goes into a tank which is then heated by the evacuted tubes.
	In this picture you can see the two systems that are sued to heat water, The solar water heater over the cistern preheats the water while the evacuated tubes tqke over to raise it to temperatures of over 80degrees celcius. It very hot and has resulted in damage to any plastic parts close to the pipes.
	And this is Will who did all of the plumbing and installation.

	May 20, 2009 I have just added a heat exchanger for heating the oil in the biodiesel reactor process. This runs from the already installed evacuated tube system. The biodiesel heat exchanger piping.
	The piping for bypassing the water heater when using the heat exchanger for the biodiesel process.
	The biodiesel room is becoming a real forest of pipes... but it all is an improvement expecially now that I can run it entirely on sunshine.
	This is the new way I am heating the oil in the biodiesel reactor. I have piped the hot water from the evacuated tube system into a heat exchanger situated above the reactor. This heat exchanger is made from an old propane tank with stainless steel for the exchanger. This works better than expected. I will put some insulation on the pipes when I am sure there are no more changes to be made.

	May 4, 2009 Finally all the tubes are installed! Now to test the system out over the next few weeks!
	Rod and I have installed the entire system so we are putting in the tubes.
	This is the installation of the tank, pump and computer in the basement. After getting system charged with water we searched for leaks... foudn a few then had a problem since the pump would not circulate. We found that the valve above the flow meter was not functioning.....!!!!! So a fix was made.
	Here Rod and I are getting ready to install the tubes.
	This is Rods evacuated tube system that we installed in early may 2009. It was a tricky install but with a little planning it came off quite well.

	Mats Biodiesel system April 19 2009. The system has been basically very good but today I found the upper temperature at 138 degrees C which means it was above boilding. Investigation of the pressure revealed that therev was no pressure in the system and a quick look told me that one of the drain taps was leaking at the soldered joint. I Was a little scared of the heat being generated at the collectors so I pumped the water back in to cool the system. Once cooled I drained the system and soldered the leaky joint then filled the system again. All seems to be working fine just now but I wonder just how hot the system would have got if I had not caught the high temperature? Again it pays to be at home all the time and keep an eye on everything.
	April 14, 2009 The hot water tank with the glycol lines and pump installed. Rather simple work and I put Water in the system instead of the glycol to check for leaks and testing. I will use this system for heating the water for the use in the biodiesel process. I am also contemplating putting a heat exchanger on the reator to heat the oil as well. So far everything checks out just fine.
`	This is a close up of the pump ( green) and the expansion tank and pressure gauge. Note the one way valve and two bleeding valves at the base on the return line.
	Here is the rack with only 9 tubes installed. I elected to use only 9 of the 18 tubes just for testing purposes.