We are progressing toward what we have put-off for far too long: eliminating natural gas fired, storage-based water heating and replacing it with solar thermal with electric on-demand back-up. Evacuated tube collector tubes, manifolds and mounting frame hardware have been sitting around for years since we purchased these from a departing neighbor. As part of this conversion of our very modest home infrastructure, we will eliminate the 30gallon tank which fills our kitchen closet (the only built-in closet in our house!) and will regain this space for use as a pantry and for storage of many things which currently cause our kitchen to be cluttered and hard to use. This will be a very welcome benefit of reducing our consumption of natural gas.
Today I spent more time developing a spreadsheet to calculate elements of system performance and to help size components. There is a lot of work to do here but I’m excited to make progress and pull the kids into the process. Next weekend….starting installation? Phase one will be 1/3 of the system for domestic water heat. Phase 2 will be 3 collectors to drive some radiators for a bit of house heat and, if all goes well, perhaps to heat a small hot tub as well. Wouldn’t that be nice.